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NY PUBLIC LIBRARY THE BRANCH LIBRARIES
3 3333 081 19 4702
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SPECIAL ED.
5
O f O < '"Re*,
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
INTO LILLIPUT AND BROBDINGNAG
GULLIVER
III
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
INTO LILLIPUT AND BROBDINGNAG
ILLUSTRATED BY JEAN DE
BOSSCHERE
NEW YORK: DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
Printed in Great Britain.
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
GULLIVER ......... Coloured Frontispiece
I LAID THEM OUT IN LEARNING NAVIGATION ....... I
THE ANTELOPE ............ 3
I HAD THE FORTUNE TO BREAK THE STRINGS ...... 5
I AWAKED BY A VERY RIDICULOUS ACCIDENT ...... 10
I LOOKED ABOUT ME ........... 12
HIS VOICE WAS SHRILL, BUT VERY CLEAR AND ARTICULATE .... 13
six OF HIS MAJESTY'S GREATEST SCHOLARS ....... 17
AND IMMEDIATELY ALL THE TROOPS GAVE A SHOUT ..... 2O
MY GENTLENESS AND GOOD BEHAVIOUR HAD GAINED SO FAR ON THE EMPEROR
AND HIS COURT ........... 22
SOMETIMES LEAP OVER THE STICK, SOMETIMES CREEP UNDER IT, BACKWARD AND
FORWARD . 24
AS HE WALKS THE SAID ROADS, HE SHALL TAKE THE UTMOST CARE NOT TO TRAMPLE
UPON THE BODIES .......... 28
MILDENDO 30
I THEN STEPPED OVER THE BUILDING . 3!
A MOST OBSTINATE WAR FOR SIX-AND-THIRTY MOONS PAST .... 34
BLEFUSCU 36
HER IMPERIAL MAJESTY'S APARTMENT WAS ON FIRE Coloured Illustration facing page 36
I WADED THROUGH THE MIDDLE WITH MY CARGO, AND ARRIVED SAFE AT THE
ROYAL P.ORT OF LILLIPUT ......... 38
MILDENDO ............. 41
A YOUNG GIRL THREADING AN INVISIBLE NEEDLE WITH INVISIBLE SILK . . 42
LET FALL A PLUMB-LINE FROM MY COLLAR TO THE FLOOR .... 47
A CONSIDERABLE PERSON AT COURT CAME TO MY HOUSE VERY PRIVATELY AT NIGHT,
IN A CLOSE CHAIR 50
HE DESIRED I WOULD HEAR HIM WITH PATIENCE 5 1
YOU WILL GROW WEAK AND FAINT 55
V
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGB
I OBSERVED, ABOUT HALF A LEAGUE OFF IN THE SEA 58
I WAS FORCED TO SWIM BEHIND 59
I TOOK MY BLACK CATTLE AND SHEEP OUT OF MY POCKET .... 62
BUT HAVING GOT NORTHWARD OF THAT ISLAND ...... 65
THE ADVENTURE ............ 66
THEY WENT TO REAP THE CORN IN THE FIELD WHERE I LAY .... 69
AND BEGAN TO LOOK UPON ME AS A CURIOSITY . . . . . 7!
TO DEFEND MYSELF ........... 75
PLACED UPON A HANGING SHELF FOR FEAR OF THE RATS .... 77
WITH A LITTLE DOOR FOR ME TO GO IN AND OUT ...... 79
GLUMDALCLITCH ....... Coloured Illustration facing page 80
A SLARDRAL, OR GENTLEMAN-USHER, CAME FROM COURT. .... 83
AND WAS ALMOST REDUCED TO A SKELETON ....... 84
THE QUEEN BECAME FOND OF MY COMPANY 89
I DISPATCHED FOUR OF THEM ......... 92
I BANGED IT A GOOD WHILE WITH ONE OF MY SCULLS Coloured Illustration facing page 92
LORBRULGRUD, THE METROPOLIS ......... 94
SHOOK IT DIRECTLY OVER MY HEAD ........ 98
THE QUEEN'S DWARF ........... 100
THE LADDERS WERE NOW APPLIED ........ IO5
HIS MAJESTY WAS ONLY SHAVED TWICE A- WEEK ...... 107
I RAN SIDELING UPON IT .......... IO9
A HOLLOW TUBE OF BRASS OR IRON . . . . . . . . 115
THE KING WAS STRUCK WITH HORROR AT THE DESCRIPTION .... 117
A CAVALIER MOUNTED ON A LARGE STEED ....... 121
BROUGHT IN A TUMBRIL TO LORBRULGRUD ....... 123
THE EAGLE WHICH FLEW AWAY WITH MY BOX . . . . . .125
I BEGAN TO FANCY THAT THE BOX WAS PULLED OR TOWED ALONG THE SEA . . 127
THE CARPENTER CAME ........... 128
THE CAPTAIN WAS VERY WELL SATISFIED WITH THIS PLAIN RELATION . . 134
VI
I LAID THEM OUT IN LEARNING NAVIGATION
PART I
A VOYAGE TO LILLIPUT
CHAPTER I
Y father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire ; I was
the third of five sons. He sent me to Emanuel
College, in Cambridge, at fourteen years old, where
I resided there years, and applied myself close to my
studies ; but the charge of maintaining me, although
I had a very scanty allowance, being too great for a narrow fortune,
I was bound apprentice to Mr. James Bates, an eminent surgeon in
London, with whom I continued four years ; and my father now
and then sending me small sums of money, I laid them out in
learning navigation, and other parts of the mathematics useful to
those who intend to travel, as I always believed it would be, some
time or other, my fortune to do. When I left Mr. Bates I went
down to my father, where, by the assistance of him and my uncle
John, and some other relations, I got forty pounds, and a promise of
B I
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
thirty pounds a year to maintain me at Leyden ; there I studied
physic two years and seven months, knowing it would be useful
in long voyages. Soon after my return from Leyden 1 was
recommended by my good master, Mr. Bates, to be surgeon to
the Swa/hiv, Captain Abraham Pannell, commander ; with whom
I continued three years and a half, making a voyage or two into
the Levant and some other parts. When I came back I resolved
to settle in London ; to which Mr. Bates, my master, encouraged
me, and by him I was recommended to several patients. I took
part of a small house in the Old Jewry; and being advised to alter
my condition, I married Miss Mary Burton, second daughter to
Mr. Edmund Burton, hosier, in Newgate Street, with whom I
received four hundred pounds for a portion.
But my good master Bates dying in two years after, and I having
few friends, my business began to fail ; for my conscience would
not suffer me to imitate the bad practice of too many among my
brethren. Having, therefore, consulted with my wife and some of
my acquaintance, I determined to go again to sea. I was surgeon
successively in two ships, and made several voyages, for six years, to
the East and West Indies, by which I got some addition to my
fortune. My hours of leisure I spent in reading the best authors,
ancient and modern, being always provided with a good number of
books ; and when I was ashore, in observing the manners and
dispositions of the people, as well as learning their language ;
wherein I had a great facility, by the strength of my memory.
The last of these voyages not proving very fortunate, I grew
weary of the sea, and intended to stay at home with my wife
and family. I removed from the Old Jewry to Fetter Lane, and
from thence to Wapping, hoping to get business among the sailors,
but it would not turn to account. After three years' expectation
that things would mend, I accepted an advantageous offer from
Captain William Prichard, master of the Ante lope ^ who was making
a voyage to the South Sea. We set sail from Bristol, May 4,
1699, and our voyage at first was very prosperous.
It would not be proper, for some reasons, to trouble the reader
with the particulars of our adventures in those seas ; let it suffice to
inform him, that in our passage from thence to the East Indies, we
were driven by a violent storm to the north-west of Van Diemen's
Land. By an observation, we found ourselves in the latitude of
30 degrees 2 minutes south. Twelve of our crew were dead by
2
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
immoderate labour and ill food ; the rest were in a very weak
condition. On the 5th of November, which was the beginning
of summer in those parts, the weather being very hazy, the seamen
spied a rock within half a cable's length of the ship; but the wind
THE ANTELOPE
was so strong that we were driven directly upon it, and immediately
split. Six of the crew, of whom I was one, having let down the
boat into the sea, made a shift to get clear of the ship and the
rock. We rowed, by my computation, about three leagues, till we
were able to work no longer, being already spent with labour while
3
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
we were in the ship. We therefore trusted ourselves to the mercy
of the waves, and in about half an hour the boat was overset by
a sudden flurry from the north. What became of my companions
in the boat, as well as of those who escaped on the rock, or were
left in the vessel, I cannot tell ; but conclude they were all lost.
For my own part, I swam as fortune directed me, and was pushed
forward by wind and tide. I often let my legs drop, and could feel
no bottom ; but when I was almost gone, and able to struggle no
longer, I found myself within my depth ; and by this time the storm
was much abated. The declivity was so small that I walked near a
mile before I got to the shore, which I conjectured was about eight
o'clock in the evening. I then advanced forward near half a mile,
but could not discover any sign of houses or inhabitants ; at least, I
was in so weak a condition that I did not observe them. I was
extremely tired, and with that, and the heat of the weather, and
about half a pint of brandy that I drank as I left the ship, I
found myself much inclined to sleep. I lay down on the grass,
which was very short and soft, where I slept sounder than ever
I remembered to have done in my life, and, as I reckoned, above
nine hours; for when I awaked it was just daylight.
I attempted to rise, but was not able to stir ; for, as I happened
to lie on my back, I found my legs and arms were strongly fastened
on each side to the ground ; and my hair, which was long and
thick, tied down in the same manner. I likewise felt several slender
ligatures across my body, from my arm-pits to my thighs. I could
only look upwards ; the sun began to grow hot, and the light
offended my eyes. I heard a confused noise about me ; but in
the posture I lay could see nothing except the sky. In a little
time I felt something alive moving on my left leg, which advancing
gently forward over my breast came almost up to my chin ; when,
bending my eyes downward as much as I could, I perceived it
to be a human creature not six inches high, with a bow and arrow
in his hands and a quiver at his back. In the meantime, I felt
at least forty more of the same kind (as I conjectured) following
the first. I was in the utmost astonishment, and roared so loud
that they all ran back in a fright ; and some of them, as I was
afterwards told, were hurt by the falls they got by leaping from
my sides upon the ground. However, they soon returned, and
one of them, who ventured so far as to get a full sight of my
face, lifting up his hands and eyes by way of admiration, cried
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
out in a shrill but distinct voice, Hekinah degul I The others
repeated the same words several times, but I then knew not what
they meant.
I lay all this while, as the reader may believe, in great uneasiness ;
I HAD THE FORTUNE TO BREAK THE STRINGS
at length, struggling to get loose, I had the fortune to break the
strings, and wrench out the pegs that fastened my left arm to
the ground ; for, by lifting it up to my face, I discovered the
methods they had taken to bind me, and at the same time with
a violent pull, which gave me excessive pain, I a little loosened
5
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
the strings that tied down my hair on the left side, so that I was
just able to turn my head about two inches. But the creatures
ran off a second time, before I could seize them ; whereupon there
was a great shout in a very shrill accent, and after it ceased I
heard one of them cry aloud, To/go phonac ; when in an instant
I felt above a hundred arrows discharged on my left hand, which
pricked me like so many needles ; and besides, they shot another
flight into the air, as we do bombs in Europe, whereof many, I
suppose, fell on my body (though I felt them not), and some on
my face, which I immediately covered with my left hand. When
this shower of arrows was over, I fell a groaning with grief
and pain, and then striving again to get loose, they discharged
another volley larger than the first, and some of them attempted
with spears to stick me in the sides ; but by good luck I had
on me a buff jerkin, which they could not pierce. I thought it
the most prudent method to lie still, and my design was to continue
so till night, when, my left hand being already loose, I could
easily free myself : and as for the inhabitants, I had reason to
believe I might be a match for the greatest armies they could
bring against me, if they were all of the same size with him
that I saw.
But fortune disposed otherwise of me. When the people
observed I was quiet, they discharged no more arrows ; but, by the
noise I heard, I knew their numbers increased ; and about four yards
from me, over against my right ear, I heard a knocking for above an
hour, like that of people at work ; when turning my head that way,
as well as the pegs and strings would permit me, I saw a stage erected
about a foot and a half from the ground, capable of holding four of
the inhabitants, with two or three ladders to mount it : from whence
one of them, who seemed to be a person of quality, made me a long
speech, whereof I understood not one syllable. But I should have
mentioned, that before the principal person began his oration, he
cried out three times, Langro dehul san (these words and the former
were afterwards repeated and explained to me). Whereupon,
immediately about fifty of the inhabitants came and cut the strings
that fastened the left side of my head, which gave me the liberty of
turning it to the right, and of observing the person and gesture of
him that was to speak.
He appeared to be of a middle age, and taller than any of the
other three who attended him, whereof one was a page that held
6
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
up his train, and seemed to be somewhat longer than my middle
finger ; the other two stood one on each side to support him.
He acted every part of an orator, and 1 could observe many periods
of threatenings, and others of promises, pity, and kindness. I
answered in a few words, but in the most submissive manner, lifting
up my left hand and both my eyes to the sun, as calling him for
a witness ; and being almost famished with hunger, having not
eaten a morsel for some hours before I left the ship, I found the
demands of nature so strong upon me that I could not forbear
showing my impatience (perhaps against the strict rules of decency),
by putting my finger frequently to my mouth, to signify that I
wanted food. The hurgo (for so they call a great lord, as I after-
wards learnt) understood me very well. He descended from the
stage, and commanded that several ladders should be applied to my
sides, on which above a hundred of the inhabitants mounted, and
walked towards my mouth, laden with baskets full of meat, which
had been provided and sent thither by the king's orders, upon the
first intelligence he received of me. I observed there was the flesh
of several animals, but could not distinguish them by the taste.
There were shoulders, legs and loins, shaped like those of mutton,
and very well dressed, but smaller than the wings of a lark. I ate
them by two or three at a mouthful, and took three loaves at a
time about the bigness of musket bullets. They supplied me as
they could, showing a thousand marks of wonder and astonishment
at my bulk and appetite.
I then made another sign that I wanted drink. They found by
my eating that a small quantity would not suffice me ; and being
a most ingenious people, they slung up, with great dexterity, one of
their largest hogsheads, then rolled it towards my hand, and beat
out the top ; I drank it off at a draught, which I might well do, for
it did not hold half a pint, and tasted like a small wine of Burgundy,
but much,more delicious. They brought me a second hogshead,
which I drank in the same manner, and made signs for more : but
they had none to give me. When I had performed these wonders
they shouted for joy, and danced upon my breast, repeating several
times as they did at first, Hekinah degul. They made me a sign that
I should throw down the two hogsheads, but first warning the people
below to stand out of the way, crying aloud, Borach mevolah ; and
when they saw the vessels in the air, there was a universal shout of
Hekinah degul. I confess I was often tempted, while they were
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
passing backwards and forwards on my body, to seize forty or fifty of
the first that came in my reach, and dash them against the ground.
But the remembrance of what I had felt, which probably might not
be the worst they could do, and the promise of honour I made them
for so I interpreted my submissive behaviour soon drove out
these imaginations. Besides, I now considered myself as bound by
the laws of hospitality, to a people who had treated me with so much
expense and magnificence. However, in my thoughts I could not
sufficiently wonder at the intrepidity of these diminutive mortals, who
durst venture to mount and walk upon my body while one of my
hands was at liberty, without trembling at the very sight of so
prodigious a creature as I must appear to them.
After some time, when they observed that I made no more
demands for meat, there appeared before me a person of high rank
from his imperial majesty. His excellency, having mounted on the
small of my right leg, advanced forwards up to my face, with about
a dozen of his retinue, and producing his credentials under the signet
royal, which he applied close to my eyes, spoke about ten minutes
without any signs of anger, but with a kind of determinate
resolution ; often pointing forwards, which, as I afterwards found,
was towards the capital city, about half a mile distant, whither
it was agreed by his majesty in council that I must be conveyed. I
answered in few words, but to no purpose, and made a sign with my
hand that was loose, putting it to the other (but over his excellency's
head for fear of hurting him or his train), and then to my own head
and body, to signify that I desired my liberty.
It appeared that he understood me well enough, for he shook
his head by way of disapprobation, and held his hand in a posture
to show that I must be carried as a prisoner. However, he made
other signs, to let me understand that I should have meat and drink
enough, and very good treatment. Whereupon I once more
thought of attempting to break my bonds ; but again, when I felt
the smart of their arrows upon my face and hands, which were
all in blisters, and many of the darts still sticking in them, and
observing likewise that the number of my enemies increased, I gave
tokens to let them know that they might do with me what they
pleased. Upon this, the hurgo and his train withdrew, with much
civility and cheerful countenances. Soon after I heard a general
shout; with frequent repetitions of the words, Peplom selan ; and
I felt great numbers of the people on my left side relaxing the cords
8
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
to such a degree that I was able to turn upon my right. But,
before this, they had daubed my face and both my hands with a
sort of ointment, very pleasant to the smell, which, in a few
minutes, removed all the smart of their arrows. These circum-
stances, added to the refreshment I had received by their victuals
and drink, which were very nourishing, disposed me to sleep.
I slept about eight hours, as I was afterwards assured ; and it was
no wonder, for the physicians, by the emperor's order, had mingled
a sleepy potion in the hogsheads of wine.
It seems, that upon the first moment I was discovered sleeping
on the ground, after my landing, the emperor had early notice of it
by an express ; and determined in council, that I should be tied
in the manner I have related (which was done in the night while I
slept), that plenty of meat and drink should be sent me, and a
machine prepared to carry me to the capital city. This resolution
perhaps may appear very bold and dangerous, and I am confident
would not be imitated by any prince in Europe on the like occasion.
However, in my opinion, it was extremely prudent, as well as
generous : for, supposing these people had endeavoured to kill
me with their spears and arrows, while I was asleep, I should
certainly have awaked with the first sense of smart, which might so
far have roused my rage and strength as to have enabled me to break
the strings wherewith I was tied ; after which, as they were not
able to make resistance, so they could expect no mercy.
These people are most excellent mathematicians, and arrived to a
great perfection in mechanics by the countenance and encourage-
ment of the emperor, who is a renowned patron of learning. This
prince has several machines fixed on wheels, for the carriage of trees
and other great weights. He often builds his largest men-of-
war, whereof some are nine feet long, in the woods where the
timber grows, and has them carried on these engines three or four
hundred yards to the sea. Five hundred carpenters and engineers
were immediately set at work to prepare the greatest engine they
had. It was a frame of wood raised three inches from the ground,
about seven feet long and four wide, moving upon twenty-two
wheels. The shout I heard was upon the arrival of this engine,
which, it seems, set out in four hours after my landing. It was
brought parallel to me, as I lay. But the principal difficulty was to
raise and place me in this vehicle. Eighty poles, each of one
foot high, were erected for this purpose, and very strong cords,
c 9
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
of the bigness of packthread, were fastened by hooks to many
bandages, which the workmen had girt round my neck, my hands,
my body, and my legs. Nine hundred of the strongest men were
employed to draw up these cords, by many pulleys fastened on
the poles ; and thus, in less than three hours, I was raised and slung
into the engine, and there tied fast. All this I was told ; for, while
the operation was performing, I lay in a profound sleep, by the
force of that soporiferous medicine infused into my liquor. Fifteen
hundred of the emperor's largest horses, each about four inches and
I AWAKED BY A VERY RIDICULOUS ACCIDENT
a half high, were employed to draw me towards the metropolis,
which, as I said, was half a mile distant.
About four hours after we began our journey, I awaked by
a very ridiculous accident ; for the carriage being stopped awhile,
to adjust something that was out of order, two or three of the
young natives had the curiosity to see how I looked when I was
asleep ; they climbed up into the engine, and advanced very softly
to my face ; one of them, an officer in the guards, put the sharp
end of his half-pike a good way up into my left nostril, which
tickled my nose like a straw, and made me sneeze violently ; where-
upon they stole off unperceived, and it was three weeks before^I
10
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
knew the cause of my waking so suddenly. We made a long
march the remaining part of that day, and rested at night with five
hundred guards on each side of me, half with torches, and
half with bows and arrows, ready to shoot me if I should offer to
stir. The next morning at sunrise we continued our march, and
arrived within two hundred yards of the city gates about noon.
The emperor, and all his court, came out to meet us, but his great
officers would by no means suffer his majesty to endanger his person
by mounting on my body.
At the place where the carriage stopped, there stood an ancient
temple, esteemed to be the largest in the whole kingdom ; which,
having been polluted some years before by an unnatural murder,
was, according to the zeal of those people, looked on as profane,
and therefore had been applied to common use, and all the orna-
ments and furniture carried away. In this edifice it was determined
I should lodge. The great gate fronting to the north was about
four feet high, and almost two feet wide, through which I could
easily creep. On each side of the gate was a small window, not
above six inches from the ground ; into that on the left side, the
king's smith conveyed four-score and eleven chains, like those that
hang to a lady's watch in Europe, and almost as large, which were
locked to my left leg with six-and-thirty padlocks. Over against
this temple, on the other side of the great highway, at twenty feet
distance, there was a turret at least five feet high. Here the
emperor ascended, with many principal lords of his court, to have
an opportunity of viewing me, as I was told, for I could not see
them. It was reckoned that above a hundred thousand inhabitants
came out of the town upon the same errand ; and in spite of my
guards, I believe there could not be fewer than ten thousand at
several times, who mounted my body by the help of ladders. But
a proclamation was soon issued, to forbid it upon pain of death.
When the, workmen found it was impossible for me to break loose,
they cut all the strings that bound me ; whereupon I rose up, with
as melancholy a disposition as ever I had in my life. But the noise
and astonishment of the people, at seeing me rise and walk, are not
to be expressed. The chains that held my left leg were about
two yards long, and gave me not only the liberty of walking back-
wards and forwards in a semicircle ; but, being fixed within four
inches of the gate, allowed me to creep in, and lie at my full length
in the temple.
1 1
I LOOKED ABOUT ME
CHAPTER II
,T was with great pleasure when I found myself upon my
feet. I looked about me, and must confess I never
beheld a more entertaining prospect. The country round
appeared like a continued garden, and the enclosed fields,
which were generally forty feet square, resembled so many
beds of flowers. These fields were intermingled with woods of
half a sfang, and the tallest trees, as I could judge, appeared to be
seven feet high. I viewed the town on my left hand, which
looked like the painted scene of a city in a theatre.
The emperor was already descended from the tower, and
advancing on horseback towards me, which had like to have cost
him dear ; for the beast, though very well trained, yet wholly
unused to such a sight, which appeared as if a mountain moved
before him, reared up on his hinder feet : but that prince, who is
an excellent horseman, kept his seat, till his attendants ran in, and
held the bridle, while his majesty had time to dismount. When he
alighted, he surveyed me round with great admiration ; but kept
without the length of my chain. He ordered his cooks and
12
HIS VOICE WAS SHRILL, BUT VERY CLEAR AND ARTICULATE
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
butlers, who were already prepared, to give me victuals and drink,
which they pushed forward in a sort of vehicles upon wheels,
till I could reach them. I took these vehicles, and soon emptied
them all : twenty of them were filled with meat, and ten with
liquor ; each of the former afforded me two or three good mouth-
fuls : and I emptied the liquor of ten vessels which was contained
in earthen vials, into one vehicle, drinking it off at a draught ;
and so I did with the rest. The empress and young princes of
the blood of both sexes, attended by many ladies, sat at some
distance in their chairs : but, upon the accident that happened to
the emperor's horse, they alighted, and came near his person,
which I am now going to describe.
He is taller, by almost the breadth of my nail, than any of
his court ; which alone is enough to strike an awe into the be-
holders. His features are strong and masculine, with an Austrian
lip, and arched nose ; his complexion olive, his countenance erect,
his body and limbs well proportioned, all his motions graceful,
and his deportment majestic. He was then past his prime, being
twenty-eight years and three-quarters old, of which he had reigned
about seven in great felicity, and generally victorious. For the
better convenience of beholding him, I lay on my side, so that
my face was parallel to his, and he stood but three yards off:
however, I have had him since many times in my hand, and there-
fore cannot be deceived in the description. His dress was very
plain and simple, and the fashion of it between the Asiatic and
the European ; but he had on his head a light helmet of gold,
adorned with jewels, and a plume on the crest. He held his
sword drawn in his hand to defend himself, if 1 should happen
to break loose ; it was almost three inches long ; the hilt and
scabbard were gold enriched with diamonds. His voice was shrill,
but very clear and articulate ; and I could distinctly hear it when
I stood up.
The ladies and courtiers were all most magnificently clad ; so
that the spot they stood upon seemed to resemble a petticoat spread
on the ground, embroidered with figures of gold and silver. His
imperial majesty spoke often to me, and I returned answers : but
neither of us could understand a syllable. There were several of his
priests and lawyers present (as I conjectured by their habits), who
were commanded to address themselves to me ; and I spoke to them
in as many languages as I had the least smattering of, which were
H
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
High and Low Dutch, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and Lingua
Franca ; but all to no purpose. After about two hours the court
retired, and I was left with a strong guard, to prevent the imperti-
nence, and probably the malice of the rabble ; who were very
impatient to crowd about me as near as they durst ; and some of
them had the impudence to shoot their arrows at me, as I sat on the
ground by the door of my house, whereof one very narrowly missed
my left eye. But the colonel ordered six of the ringleaders to be
seized, and thought no punishment so proper as to deliver them
bound into my hands ; which some of his soldiers accordingly did,
pushing them forwards with the butt-ends of their pikes into my
reach. I took them all in my right hand, put five of them into my
coat-pocket, and as to the sixth, I made a countenance as if I would
eat him alive. The poor man squalled terribly, and the colonel and
his officers were in much pain, especially when they saw me take
out my penknife : but I soon put them out of fear ; for, looking
mildly, and immediately cutting the strings he was bound with, I
set him gently on the ground and away he ran. I treated the rest
in the same manner, taking them one by one out of my pocket ;
and I observed both the soldiers and people were highly delighted at
this mark of my clemency, which was represented very much to my
advantage at court.
Towards night I got with some difficulty into my house, where
I lay on the ground, and continued to do so about a fortnight ;
during which time, the emperor gave orders to have a bed prepared
for me. Six hundred beds of the common measure were brought in
carriages, and worked up in my house ; a hundred and fifty of their
beds, sewn together, made up breadth and length ; and these were
four double ; which, however, kept me but very indifferently from
the hardness of the floor, that was of smooth stone. By the same
computation they provided me with sheets, blankets, and coverlets,
tolerable enough for one who had been so long inured to hardships,
as I.
As the news of my arrival spread through the kingdom, it
brought prodigious numbers of rich, idle, and curious people to see
me ; so that the villages were almost emptied ; and great neglect
of tillage and household affairs must have ensued, if his imperial
majesty had not provided by several proclamations and orders of
state, against this inconveniency. He directed, that those who had
already beheld me should return home, and not presume to come
'5
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
within fifty yards of my house, without license from court ; where-
by the secretaries of state got considerable fees.
In the meantime the emperor held frequent councils, to debate
what course should be taken with me ; and I was afterwards
assured by a particular friend, a person of great quality, who was
looked upon to be as much in the secret as any, that the court was
under many difficulties concerning me. They apprehended my
breaking loose ; that my diet would be very expensive, and might
cause a famine. Sometimes they determined to starve me, or at least
to shoot me in the face and hands with poisoned arrows, which
would soon dispatch me ; but again they considered, that the stench
of so large a carcase might produce a plague in the metropolis, and
probably spread through the whole kingdom. In the midst of these
consultations, several officers of the army went to the door of the
great council-chamber, and two of them being admitted, gave an
account of my behaviour to the six criminals above mentioned ;
which made so favourable an impression in the breast of his majesty
and the whole board, in my behalf, that an imperial commission was
issued out, obliging all the villages, nine hundred yards round the
city, to deliver in every morning six beeves, forty sheep, and other
victuals for my sustenance ; together with a proportionable quantity
of bread, and wine and other liquors ; for the due payment of which,
his majesty gave assignments upon his treasury : for this prince
lives chiefly upon his own demesnes ; seldom, except upon great
occasions, raising any subsidies upon his subjects, who are bound to
attend him in his wars at their own expense. An establishment was
also made of six hundred persons to be my domestics, who had
board-wages allowed for their maintenance, and tents built for them
very conveniently on each side of my door. It was likewise ordered
that three hundred tailors should make me a suit of clothes, after the
fashion of the country ; that six of his majesty's greatest scholars
should be employed to instruct me in their language ; and lastly,
that the emperor's horses, and those of the nobility and troops of
guards, should be frequently exercised in my sight, to accustom
themselves to me.
All these orders were duly put in execution ; and in about three
weeks I made a great progress in learning their language : during
which time the emperor frequently honoured me with his visits,
and was pleased to assist my masters in teaching me. We began
already to converse together in some sort ; and the first words
16
GULLIVER'S 'TRAVELS
I learnt, were to express my desire that he would be pleased to give
me my liberty ; which I every day repeated on my knees. His
answer, as I could apprehend it, was that this must be a work of
time, not to be thought on without the advice of council, and that
first I must lumos keltnin pesso desmar Ion emposo ; that is, swear
a peace with him and his kingdom ; however, that I should be
used with all kindness ; and he advised me to acquire by my
patience and discreet behaviour, the good opinion of himself and
his subjects. He desired I would not take it ill, if he gave orders
to certain proper officers to
search me ; for probably I
might carry about me several
weapons, which must needs
be dangerous things, if they
answered the bulk of so pro-
digious a person. I said, His
majesty should be satisfied ; for
I was ready to strip myself,
and turn up my pockets
before him. This I delivered,
part in words, and part in
signs. He replied, that, by
the laws of the kingdom, I
must be searched by two of
his officers; that he knew this
could not be done without my six OF HIS MAJESTY'S GREATEST SCHOLARS
consent and assistance ; and
he had so good an opinion of my generosity and justice, as to trust
their persons in my hands ; that whatever they took from me,
should be returned when I left the country, or paid for at the rate
which I would set upon them. I took up the two officers in my
hands, put, them first into my coat-pockets, and then into every
other pocket about me, except my two fobs and another secret
pocket I had no mind should be searched, wherein I had some
little necessaries that were of no consequence to any but myself.
In one of my fobs there was a silver watch, and in the other a
small quantity of gold in a purse. These gentlemen, having pen,
ink, and paper about them, made an exact inventory of every thing
they saw ; and when they had done, desired I would set them
down, that they might deliver it to the emperor. This inventory
D 17
GULLIVER'S T R A V ELS
I afterwards translated into English, and is word for word as
follows :
Imprimis, In the right coat-pocket of the great man-mountain
(for so I interpret the words quinbus jiestriri), after the strictest
search, we found only one great piece of coarse cloth, large enough
to be a foot-cloth for your majesty's chief room of state. In the
left pocket we saw a huge silver chest, with a cover of the same
metal, which we, the searchers, were not able to lift. We desired
it should be opened, and one of us stepping into it, found himself
up to the mid-leg in a sort of dust, some part whereof flying up
to our faces, set us both a-sneezing for several times together. In
his right waistcoat-pocket we found a prodigious bundle of white
thin substances, folded one over another, about the bigness of three
men, tied with a strong cable, and marked with black figures ;
which we humbly conceive to be writings, every letter almost half
as large as the palm of our hands. In the left there was a sort
of engine, from the back of which were extended twenty long
poles, resembling the palisadoes before your majesty's court ; where-
with we conjecture the man-mountain combs his head, for we
did not always trouble him with questions, because we found it
a great difficulty to make him understand us.
In the large pocket, on the right side of his middle cover (so
I translate the word ranfu-lo, by which they meant my breeches),
we saw a hollow pillar of iron, about the length of a man, fastened
to a strong piece of timber larger than the pillar ; and upon one
side of the pillar were huge pieces of iron sticking out, cut into
strange figures, which we know not what to make of. In the left
pocket, another engine of the same kind. In the smaller pocket on
the right side, were several round flat pieces of white and red metal,
of different bulk ; some of the white, which seemed to be silver,
were so large and heavy that my comrade and I could hardly lift
them. In the left pocket were two black pillars irregularly shaped :
we could not, without difficulty, reach the top of them, as we stood
at the bottom of his pocket. One of them was covered, and
seemed all of a piece ; but at the upper end of the other there
appeared a white round substance, about twice the bigness of our
heads. Within each of these was enclosed a prodigious plate of
steel ; which, by our orders, we obliged him to show us, because
we apprehended they might be dangerous engines. He took them
18
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
out of their cases, and told us, that in his own country his practice
was to shave his beard with one of these, and cut his meat with
the other.
There were two pockets which we could not enter ; these he
called his fobs ; they were two large slits cut into the top of his
middle cover, but squeezed close by the pressure of his belly. Out
of the right fob hung a great silver chain, with a wonderful kind of
engine at the bottom. We directed him to draw out whatever was
fastened to that chain, which appeared to be a globe, half silver,
and half of some transparent metal ; for, on the transparent side, we
saw certain strange figures circularly drawn, and thought we could
touch them, till we found our ringers stopped by that lucid
substance. He put this engine to our ears, which made an incessant
noise, like that of a water-mill : and we conjecture it is either some
unknown animal, or the god that he worships ; but we are more
inclined to the latter opinion, because he assured us (if we under-
stood him right, for he expressed himself very imperfectly) that he
seldom did any thing without consulting it. He called it his
oracle, and said it pointed out the time for every action of his life.
From the left fob he took out a net almost large enough for a
fisherman, but contrived to open and shut like a purse, and which
served him for the same use : we found therein several massy pieces of
yellow metal, which, if they be real gold, must be of immense value.
Having thus, in obedience to your majesty's commands, dili-
gently searched all his pockets, we observed a girdle about his waist,
made of the hide of some prodigious animal, from which, on the
left side, hung a sword of the height of five men ; and on the right,
a bag, or pouch, divided into two cells, capable of holding three of
your majesty's subjects. In one of these cells were several globes,
or balls, of a most ponderous metal, about the bigness of our heads,
and required a strong hand to lift them ; the other cell contained
a heap of t certain black grains, but of no great bulk or weight, for
we could hold above fifty of them in the palms of our hands.
This is an exact inventory of what we found about the body
of the man-mountain, who used us with great civility, and due
respect to your majesty's commission. Signed and sealed on the
fourth day of the eighty-ninth moon of your majesty's auspicious
reign :
C/efren ~F re lock.
Marsi Frelock.
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
less daunted than
expect : he ordered
When this inventory was read over to the emperor, he directed
me, although in very gentle terms, to deliver up the several parti-
culars. He first called for my scimitar, which I took out, scabbard
and all. In the meantime he ordered three thousand of his choicest
troops (who then attended him) to surround me at a distance, with
their bows and arrows just ready to discharge ; but I did not
observe it, for mine eyes were wholly fixed upon his majesty. He
then desired me to draw my scimitar, which, although it had got
some rust by the sea-water, was, in most parts, exceeding bright.
I did so, and immediately all
the troops gave a shout be-
tween terror and surprise ; for
the sun shone clear, and the
reflection dazzled their eyes, as
I waved the scimitar to and
fro in my hand. His majesty,
who is a most magnanimous
prince, was
I could
i
me to return it into the scab-
bard, and cast it on the ground
as gently as I could, about six
feet from the end of my chain.
The next thing he demanded
was one of the hollow iron
pillars ; by which he meant
my pocket pistols. I drew
it out, and at his desire, as well as I could, expressed to him the use
of it ; and charging it only with powder, which, by the closeness of
my pouch happened to escape wetting in the sea (an inconvenience
against which all prudent mariners take special care to provide), I
first cautioned the emperor not to be afraid, and then I let it off in
the air. The astonishment here was much greater than at the sight
of the scimitar. Hundreds fell down as if they had been struck
dead ; and even the emperor, although he stood his ground, could
not recover himself in some time.
I delivered up both my pistols in the same manner as I had done
my scimitar, and then my pouch of powder and bullets ; begging him
that the former might be kept from the fire, for it would kindle
with the smallest spark, and blow up his imperial palace into the air.
20
AND IMMEDIATELY ALL THE TROOPS
GAVE A SHOUT
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
I likewise delivered up my watch, which the emperor was very
curious to see, and commanded two of his tallest yeomen of the
guards to bear it on a pole upon their shoulders, as draymen in
England do a barrel of ale. He was amazed at the continual
noise it made, and the motion of the minute-hand, which he could
easily discern ; for their sight is much more acute than ours : he
asked the opinions of his learned men about it, which were various
and remote, as the reader may well imagine without my repeating ;
although, indeed, I could not very perfectly understand them.
I then gave up my silver and copper money, my purse with nine
large pieces of gold, and some smaller ones ; my knife and razor, my
comb and silver snuff-box, my handkerchief, and journal-book. My
scimitar, pistols, and pouch, were conveyed in carriages to his
majesty's stores ; but the rest of my goods were returned me.
I had, as I before observed, one private pocket, which escaped
their search, wherein was a pair of spectacles (which I sometimes
use for the weakness of mine eyes), a pocket perspective, and several
other little conveniences ; which, being of no consequence to the
emperor, I did not think myself bound in honour to discover, and I
apprehended they might be lost or spoiled, if I ventured them out of
my possession.
21
MY GENTLENESS AND GOOD BEHAVIOUR HAD GAINED SO FAR ON THE EMPEROR
AND HIS COURT
CHAPTER III
1Y gentleness and good behaviour had gained so far on
the emperor and his court, and indeed upon the army
and people in general, that I began to conceive hopes
of getting my liberty in a short time. I took all
possible methods to cultivate this favourable dispo-
sition. The natives came by degrees to be less apprehensive of
any danger from me. I would sometimes lie down, and let five
or six of them dance on my hand ; and at last the boys and
girls would venture to come and play at hide-and-seek in my
hair. I had now made a good progress in understanding and
speaking the language. The emperor had a mind one day to
entertain me with several of the country shows, wherein they exceed
all nations I have known, both for dexterity and magnificence.
I was diverted with none so much as that of the rope-dancers,
performed upon a slender white thread, extended about two feet,
and twelve inches from the ground. Upon which I shall desire
liberty, with the reader's patience, to enlarge a little.
22
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
This diversion is only practised by those persons who are
candidates for great employments and high favour at court. They
are trained in this art from their youth, and are not always of noble
birth, or liberal education. When a great office is vacant, either
by death or disgrace (which often happens), five or six of those
candidates petition the emperor to entertain his majesty and the
court with a dance on the rope ; and whoever jumps the highest
without falling, succeeds in the office. Very often the chief
ministers themselves are commanded to show their skill, and to
convince the emperor that they have not lost their faculty. Flimnap,
the treasurer, is allowed to cut a caper on the straight rope, at
least an inch higher than any other lord in the whole empire. I
have seen him do the summerset several times together upon a
trencher fixed on the rope, which is no thicker than a common
packthread in England. My friend Reldresal, principal secretary
for private affairs, is in my opinion, if I am not partial, the second
after the treasurer ; the rest of the great officers are much upon a
par.
These diversions are often attended with fatal accidents, whereof
great numbers are on record. I myself have seen two or three
candidates break a limb. But the danger is much greater when
the ministers themselves are commanded to show their dexterity !
for, by contending to excel themselves and their fellows, they strain
so far that there is hardly one of them who has not received a fall,
and some of them two or three. I was assured that, a year or two
before my arrival, Flimnap would have infallibly broke his neck, if
one of the king's cushions, that accidentally lay on the ground, had
not weakened the force of his fall.
There is likewise another diversion, which is only shown before
the emperor and empress and first minister, upon particular occasions.
The emperor lays on the table three fine silken threads of six inches
long ; one is purple, the other yellow, and the third white. These
threads are proposed as prizes for those persons whom the emperor
has a mind to distinguish by a peculiar mark of his favour. The
ceremony is performed in his majesty's great chamber of state,
where the candidates are to undergo a trial of dexterity, very
different from the former, and such as I have not observed the least
resemblance of in any other country of the new or old world. The
emperor holds a stick in his hands, both ends parallel to the horizon,
while the candidates advancing, one by one, sometimes leap over
2 3
SOMETIMES LEAP OVER THE STICK, SOMETIMES CREEP UNDER IT,
BACKWARD AND FORWARD
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
the stick, sometimes creep under it, backward and rorward, several
times, according as the stick is advanced or depressed. Sometimes
the emperor holds one end of the stick, and his minister the other ;
sometimes the minister has it entirely to himself. Whoever per-
forms his part with most agility, and holds out the longest in
leaping and creeping, is rewarded with the purple coloured silk ;
the yellow is given to the next, and the white to the third, which
they all wear girt twice round about the middle ; and you see few
great persons about this court who are not adorned with one of
these girdles.
The horses of the army, and those of the royal stables, having
been daily led before me, were no longer shy, but would come up to
my very feet without starting. The riders would leap them over
my hand, as I held it on the ground ; and one of the emperor's
huntsmen, upon a large courser, took my foot, shoe and all ; which
was indeed a prodigious leap. I had the good fortune to divert the
emperor one day after a very extraordinary manner. I desired he
would order several sticks of two feet high, and the thickness of an
ordinary cane, to be brought me ; whereupon his majesty commanded
the master of his woods to give directions accordingly ; and the next
morning six woodmen arrived, with as many carriages, drawn by
eight horses to each. I took nine of these sticks, and fixing them
firmly in the ground in a quadrangular figure, two feet and a half
square, I took four other sticks and tied them parallel at each corner,
about two feet from the ground ; then I fastened my handkerchief
to the nine sticks that stood erect ; and extended it on all sides, till
it was tight as the top of a drum ; and the four parallel sticks, rising
about five inches higher than the handkerchief, served as ledges on
each side. When I had finished my work, I desired the emperor to
let a troop of his best horse, twenty-four in number, come and
exercise upon this plain. His majesty approved of the proposal, and
I took them up, one by one, in my hands, ready mounted and armed,
with the proper officers to exercise them. As soon as they got into
order, they divided into two parties, performed mock skirmishes,
discharged blunt arrows, drew their swords, fled and pursued, attacked
and retired, and, in short, discovered the best military discipline I
ever beheld. The parallel sticks secured them and their horses from
falling over the stage ; and the emperor was so much delighted, that
he ordered this entertainment to be repeated several days, and once
was pleased to be lifted up, and give the word of command ; and,
E 25
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
with great difficulty, persuaded even the empress herself to let me
hold her in her close chair within two yards of the stage, from
whence she was able to take a full view of the whole performance.
It was my good fortune, that no ill accident happened in these enter-
tainments ; only once a fiery horse, that belonged to one of the
captains, pawing with his hoof, struck a hole in my handkerchief,
and his foot slipping, he overthrew his rider and himself ; but I
immediately relieved them both, and covering the hole with one
hand, I set down the troop with the other, in the same manner as I
took them up. The horse that fell was strained in the left shoulder,
but the rider got no hurt ; and I repaired my handkerchief as well
as I could : however, I would not trust to the strength of it any
more, in such dangerous enterprises.
About two or three days before I was set at liberty, as I was
entertaining the court with these kind of feats, there arrived an
express to inform his majesty that some of his subjects, riding near
the place where I was first taken up, had seen a great black substance
lying on the ground, very oddly shaped, extending its edges round,
as wide as his majesty's bed-chamber, and rising up in the middle as
high as a man ; that it was no living creature, as they at first appre-
hended, for it lay on the grass without motion, and some of them
had walked round it several times; that, by mounting upon each
other's shoulders, they had got to the top, which was flat and even,
and stamping upon it, they found it was hollow within ; that they
humbly conceived it might be something belonging to the man-
mountain ; and if his majesty pleased, they would undertake to bring
it with only five horses. I presently knew what they meant, and
was glad at heart to receive this intelligence. It seems, upon my
first reaching the shore after our shipwreck, I was in such confusion,
that before I came to the place where I went to sleep, my hat,
which I had fastened with a string to my head while I was rowing,
and had stuck on all the time I was swimming, fell off after I came
to land ; the string, as I conjecture, breaking by some accident,
which I never observed, but thought my hat had been lost at sea.
I entreated his imperial majesty to give orders it might be brought
to me as soon as possible, describing to him the use and the nature
of it : and the next day the wagoners arrived with it, but not in a
very good condition ; they had bored two holes in the brim, within
an inch and a half of the edge, and fastened two hooks in the holes ;
these hooks were tied by a long cord to the harness, and thus my hat
26
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
was dragged along for above half an English mile ; but the ground
in that country being extremely smooth and level, it received less
damage than I expected.
Two days after this adventure, the emperor, having ordered
that part of his army which quarters in and about his metropolis,
to be in readiness, took a fancy of diverting himself in a very
singular manner. He desired I would stand like a colossus, with
my legs as far asunder as I conveniently could. He then com-
manded his general (who was an old experienced leader, and a great
patron of mine) to draw up the troops in close order, and march
them under me ; the foot by twenty-four in abreast, and the horse
by sixteen, with drums beating, colours flying, and pikes advanced.
This body consisted of three thousand foot, and a thousand horse.
I had sent so many memorials and petitions for my liberty that
his majesty at length mentioned the matter, first in the cabinet,
and then in a full council ; where it was opposed by none, except
Skyris Bolgolam, who was pleased, without any provocation, to be
my mortal enemy. But it was carried against him by the whole
board, and confirmed by the emperor. That minister was galbet,
or admiral of the realm, very much in his master's confidence, and
a person well versed in affairs, but of a morose and sour complexion.
However, he was at length persuaded to comply ; but prevailed
that the articles and conditions upon which I should be set free,
and to which I must swear, should be drawn up by himself. These
articles were brought to me by Skyris Bolgolam in person, attended
by two under-secretaries and several persons of distinction. After
they were read, I was demanded to swear to the performance of
them ; first, in the manner of my own country, and afterward in
the method prescribed by their laws ; which was, to hold my right
foot in my left hand, and to place the middle finger of my right
hand on the crown of my head, and my thumb on the tip of my
right ear.' But, because the reader may perhaps be curious to have
some idea of the style and manner of expression peculiar to that
people, as well as to know the articles upon which I recovered
my liberty, I have made a translation of the whole instrument,
word for word, as near as I was able, which I here offer to the
public.
Golbasto Momarem Ev/ame Gurdilo She/in Mitlly U/ly Gue, most
mighty emperor of Li/liput, delight and terror of the universe, whose
27
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
dominions extend five thousand blustrugs (about twelve miles in circum-
ference) to the extremities of the globe ; monarch of all monarch*, taller
than the sons of men ; whose feet press down to the centre, and whose
head strikes against the sun ; at whose nod the princes of the earth shake
their knees ; pleasant as the spring, comfortable as the summer, fruitful
as autumn, dreadful as winter. His most sublime Majesty proposes to
the Man-mountain, lately arrived to our celestial dominions, the following
articles, which, by a solemn oath, he shall be obliged to perform :
I. The Man-mountain shall not depart from our dominions, without
our license under our great seal.
II. He shall not presume to
come into our metropolis without
our express order; at which time,
the inhabitants shall have two
hours' warning to keep within
their doors.
III. The said Man-mountain
shall confine his walks to our
principal high roads, and not
offer to walk or lie down in a
meadow or field of corn.
IV. As he walks the said
roads, he shall take the utmost
care not to trample upon the
bodies of any of our loving sub-
jects, their horses or carriages,
nor take any of our subjects into his hands without their own consent.
V. If an -express requires extraordinary dispatch, the Man-mountain
shall be obliged to carry, in his pocket, the messenger and horse a six
days' journey once in every moon, and return the said messenger back (if so
required) safe to our imperial presence.
VI. He shall be our ally against our enemies in the island of B/efuscu,
ana do his utmost to destroy their fleet, which is now preparing to invade us.
VII. That the said Man-mountain shall, at his time of leisure, be
aiding and assisting to our workmen, in helping to raise certain great stones,
towards covering the wall of the principal park, and other our royal
buildings.
28
AS HE WALKS THE SAID ROADS, HE SHALL
TAKE THE UTMOST CARE NOT TO TRAMPEL
UPON THE BODIES
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
VIII. 'That the said Man-mountain shall in two moons' time, deliver
in an exact survey of the circumference of our dominions, by a computation
of his own paces round the coast.
Lastly, that, upon his solemn oath to observe all the above articles, the
said Man-mountain shall have a daily allowance of meat and drink
sufficient for the support of 1724 of our subjects, with free access to our
royal person, and other marks of our favour. Given at our palace at
Be/Jaborac the twelfth day of the ninety- first moon of our reign.
I swore and subscribed to these articles with great cheerfulness
and content, although some of them were not so honourable as I could
have wished ; which proceeded wholly from the malice of Skyris
Bolgolam, the high-admiral ; whereupon my chains were immediately
unlocked, and I was at full liberty. The emperor himself, in person,
did me the honour to be by at the whole ceremony. I made my
acknowledgments by prostrating myself at his majesty's feet : but he
commanded me to rise ; and after many gracious expressions, which
to avoid the censure of vanity I shall not repeat, he added, that he
hoped I should prove a useful servant, and well deserve all the favours
he had already conferred upon me, or might do for the future.
The reader may please to observe, that in the last article of the
recovery of my liberty, the emperor stipulates to allow me a quantity
of meat and drink sufficient for the support of 1724 Lilliputians.
Some time after, asking a friend at court how they came to fix on
that determinate number, he told me that his majesty's mathema-
ticians, having taken the height of my body by the help of a quadrant,
and finding it to exceed theirs in the proportion of twelve to one,
they concluded from the similarity of their bodies, that mine must
contain at least 1724 of theirs, and consequently would require as
much food as was necessary to support that number of Lilliputians.
By which the reader may conceive an idea of the ingenuity of that
people, as well as the prudent and exact economy of so great
a prince.
29
MILDENDO
CHAPTER IV
first request I made after I had obtained my liberty
was, that I might have license to see Mildendo, the
metropolis ; which the emperor easily granted me, but
with a special charge to do no hurt either to the
inhabitants or their houses. The people had notice,
by proclamation, of my design to visit the town. The wall,
which encompassed it, is two feet and a half high, and at least
eleven inches broad, so that a coach and horses may be driven
very safely round it ; and it is flanked with strong towers at ten
feet distance. I stepped over the great western gate and passed
very gently and sideling through the two principal streets only
in my short waistcoat, for fear of damaging the roofs and eaves
of the houses with the skirts of my coat. I walked with the
utmost circumspection, to avoid treading on any stragglers that
might remain in the streets ; although the orders were very strict,
that all people should keep in their houses at their own peril.
The garret windows and tops of houses were so crowded with
spectators, that I thought in all my travels I had not seen a
3
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
more populous place. The city is an exact square, each side of the
wall being five hundred feet long. The two great streets, which
run across and divide it into four quarters, are five feet wide. The
lanes and alleys, which I could not enter, but only viewed them as I
passed, are from twelve to eighteen inches. The town is capable of
holding five hundred thousand souls : the houses are from three
to five storeys : the shops and markets well provided.
The emperor's palace is in the centre of the city, where the two
great streets meet. It is enclosed by a wall of two feet high, and
twenty feet distance from the
buildings. I had his majesty's
permission to step over this
wall ; and the space being so
wide between that and the
palace, I could easily view it
on every side. The outward
court is a square of forty feet,
and includes two other courts:
in the inmost are the royal
apartments, which I was very
desirous to see, but found it
extremely difficult ; for the
great gates, from one square
into another, were but eighteen
inches high, and seven inches
wide. Now the buildings of
the outer court were at least five feet high, and it was impossible for
me to stride over them without infinite damage to the pile, though
the walls were strongly built of hewn stone, and four inches thick.
At the same time the emperor had a great desire that I should see
the magnificence of his palace : but this I was not able to do till
three days > after, which I spent in cutting down with my knife some
of the largest trees in the royal park, about a hundred yards distance
from the city. Of these trees I made two stools, each about three
feet high, and strong enough to bear my weight. The people,
having received notice a second time, I went again through the city
to the palace with my two stools in my hands. When I came
to the side of the outer court, I stood upon one stool, and took the
other in my hand ; this I lifted over the roof, and gently set it
down on the space between the first and second court, which was
3 1
I THEN STEPPED OVER THE BUILDING
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
eight feet wide. I then stepped over the building very conveniently
from one stool to the other, and drew up the first after me with
a hooked stick f) By this contrivance I got into the inmost court ;
and, lying down upon my side, I applied my face to the windows of
the middle stories, which were left open on purpose, and discovered
the most splendid apartments that can be imagined.
There I saw the empress and the young princes, in their several
lodgings, with their chief attendants about them. Her imperial
majesty was pleased to smile very graciously upon me, and gave me
out of the window her hand to kiss.
But I shall not anticipate the reader with further descriptions of
this kind, because I reserve them for a greater work, which is
now almost ready for the press ; containing a general description
of this empire, from its first erection, through a long series of
princes ; with a particular account of their wars and politics, laws,
learning, and religion ; their plants and animals ; their peculiar
manners and customs, with other matters very curious and useful ;
my chief design at present being only to relate such events and
transactions as happened to the public or to myself during a
residence of about nine months in that empire.
One morning, about a fortnight after I had obtained my liberty,
Reldresal, principal secretary (as they style him) of private affairs,
came to my house attended only by one servant. He ordered
his coach to wait at a distance, and desired I would give him
an hour's audience ; which I readily consented to, on account
of his quality and personal merits, as well as of the many good
offices he had done me during my solicitations at court. I offered
to lie down that he might the more conveniently reach my ear ;
but he choose rather to let me hold him in my hand during our
conversation.
He began with compliments on my liberty ; said he might
pretend to some merit in it ; but however added, that if it had not
been for the present situation of things at court, perhaps I might not
have obtained it so soon. For, said he, flourishing condition as we
may appear to be in to foreigners, we labour under two mighty
evils ; a violent faction at home, and the danger of an invasion, by a
most potent enemy, from abroad. As to the first, you are to under-
stand, that for above seventy moons past there have been two
struggling parties in this empire, under the names of Tramecksan and
Slamecksan, from the high and low heels of their shoes, by which
3 2
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
they distinguish themselves. It is alleged, indeed, that the high-
heels are most agreeable to our ancient constitution ; but, however
this be, his majesty has determined to make use only of low heels in
the administration of the government, and all offices in the gift of
the crown, as you cannot but observe : and particularly that his
majesty's imperial heels are lower at least by a drurr than any of his
court ; (drurr is a measure about the fourteenth part of an inch).
The animosities between these two parties run so high, that they
will neither eat nor drink nor talk with each other. We compute
the 1'ramecksan, or high heels, to exceed us in number ; but the power
is wholly on our side. We apprehend his imperial highness, the
heir to the crown, to have some tendency towards the high heels ; at
least, we can plainly discover that one of his heels is higher than the
other, which gives him a hobble in his gait.
Now, in the midst of these intestine disquiets, we are threatened
with an invasion from the island of Blefuscu, which is the other
great empire of the universe, almost as large and powerful as this of
his majesty. For as to what we have heard you affirm, that there
are other kingdoms and states in the world inhabited by human
creatures as large as yourself, our philosophers are in much doubt,
and would rather conjecture that you dropped from the moon, or one
of the stars ; because it is certain that a hundred mortals of your
bulk would in a short time destroy all the fruits and cattle of his
majesty's dominions : besides our histories of six thousand moons
make no mention of any other regions than the two great empires
of Lilliput and Blefuscu. Which two mighty powers have, as I was
going to tell you, been engaged in a most obstinate war for six-and-
thirty moons past. It began upon the following occasion : it is
allowed on all hands, that the primitive way of breaking eggs, before
we eat them, was upon the larger end ; but his present majesty's
grandfather, while he was a boy, going to eat an egg, and breaking
it according to the ancient practice, happened to cut one of his
fingers ; whereupon the emperor, his father, published an edict,
commanding all his subjects, upon great penalties, to break the
smaller end of their eggs. The people so highly resented this law,
that our histories tell us, there have been six rebellions raised on that
account ; wherein one emperor lost his life, and another his crown.
These civil commotions were constantly fomented by the monarchs
of Blefuscu ; and when they were quelled, the exiles always fled for
refuge to that empire. It is computed that eleven thousand persons
p 33
A MOST OBSTINATE WAR FOR SIX-AND-THIRTY MOONS PAST
34
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
have at several times suffered death, rather than submit to break
their eggs at the smaller end. Many hundred large volumes have
been published upon this controversy : but the books of the Big-
endians have been long forbidden, and the whole party rendered
incapable by law of holding employments. During the course of
these troubles, the emperors of Blefuscu did frequently expostulate by
their ambassadors, accusing us of making a schism in religion by
offending against a fundamental doctrine of our great prophet
Lustrog, in the fifty-fourth chapter of the Blundecral, which is their
Alcoran. This, however, is thought to be a mere strain upon the
text ; for the words are these : that all true believers break their eggs
at the convenient end : and which is the convenient end seems, in
my humble opinion, to be left to every man's conscience, or at least
in the power of the chief magistrate to determine.
Now, the Big-endian exiles have found so much credit in the
emperor of Blefuscu's court, and so much private assistance and
encouragement from their party here at home, that a bloody war
has been carried on between the two empires for six-and-thirty
moons, with various success ; during which time we have lost forty
capital ships, and a much greater number of smaller vessels, together
with thirty thousand of our best seamen and soldiers ; and the
damage received by the enemy is reckoned to be somewhat greater
than ours. However, they have now equipped a numerous fleet,
and are just preparing to make a descent upon us ; and his imperial
majesty, placing great confidence in your valour and strength, has
commanded me to lay this account of his affairs before you.
I desired the secretary to present my humble duty to the
emperor ; and to let him know, that I thought it would not
become me, who was a foreigner, to interfere with parties ; but I
was ready, with the hazard of my life, to defend his person and
state against all invaders.
35
BLEFUSCU
CHAPTER V
empire of Blefuscu is an island situated to the north-
north-east side of Lilliput, from which it is parted
only by a channel of eight hundred yards wide. I
had not yet seen it, and upon this notice of an
intended invasion, I avoided appearing on that side
of the coast, for fear of being discovered by some of the enemy's
ships, who had received no intelligence of me ; all intercourse
between the two empires having been strictly forbidden during the
war, upon pain of death, and an embargo laid by our emperor upon
all vessels whatsoever. I communicated to his majesty a project I
had formed of seizing the enemy's whole fleet ; which, as our scouts
assured us, lay at anchor in the harbour, ready to sail with the first
fair wind. I consulted the most experienced seamen upon the
depth of the channel, which they had often plumbed ; who told
me, that in the middle, at high water, it was seventy glumgluffs
deep, which is about six feet of European measure ; and the rest of
it fifty glumgluffs at most. I walked towards the north-east coast,
36
HER IMPERIAL MAJESTY'S APARTMENT WAS ON FIRE
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
over against Blefuscu ; and lying down behind a hillock, took out
my small pocket perspective glass, and viewed the enemy's fleet at
anchor, consisting of about fifty men-of-war, and a great number of
transports : I then came back to my house, and gave orders (for
which I had a warrant) for a great quantity of the strongest cable
and bars of iron.
The cable was about as thick as packthread, and the bars of the
length and size of a knitting-needle. I trebled the cable to make
it stronger, and for the same reason, I twisted three of the iron bars
together, bending the extremities into a hook. Having thus fixed
fifty hooks to as many cables, I went back to the north-east coast,
and pulling off my coat, shoes, and stockings, walked into the sea
in my leathern jerkin, about half an hour before high water. I
waded with what haste I could, and swam in the middle about
thirty yards, till I felt ground. I arrived at the fleet in less than
half an hour. The enemy was so frighted when they saw me, that
they leaped out of their ships, and swam to shore, where there
could not be fewer than thirty thousand souls : I then took my
tackling, and fastening a hook to the hole at the prow of each, I
tied all the cords together at the end. While I was thus employed,
the enemy discharged several thousand arrows, many of which stuck
in my hands and face ; and, besides the excessive smart, gave me
much disturbance in my work. My greatest apprehension was for
my eyes, which I should have infallibly lost, if I had not suddenly
thought of an expedient. I kept, among other little necessaries, a
pair of spectacles in a private pocket, which, as I observed before,
had escaped the emperor's searchers. These I took out and fastened
as strongly as I could upon my nose, and thus armed, went on
boldly with my work, in spite of the enemy's arrows, many of
which struck against the glasses of my spectacles, but without any
other effect, farther than a little to discompose them. I had now
fastened all the hooks, and taking the knot in my hand, began to
pull ; but* not a ship would stir, for they were all too fast held by
their anchors, so that the bold part of my enterprise remained. I
therefore let go the cord, and leaving the hooks fixed to the ships,
I resolutely cut with my knife the cables that fastened the anchors,
receiving above two hundred shots in my face and hands ; then I
took up the knotted end of the cables, to which my hooks were
tied, and with great ease drew fifty of the enemy's largest men-of-
war after me.
37
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
The Blefuscudians, who had not the least imagination of what
I intended, were at first confounded with astonishment. They had
seen me cut the cables, and thought my design was only to let
the ships run adrift, or fall foul on each other ; but when they
perceived the whole fleet moving in order, and saw me pulling at
the end, they set up such a scream of grief and despair that it is
almost impossible to describe or conceive. When I had got out
of danger, I stopped awhile to pick out the arrows that stuck in
my hands and face ; and rubbed on some of the same ointment
that was given me at my first arrival, as I have formerly mentioned.
I WADED THROUGH THE MIDDLE WITH MY CARGO, AND ARRIVED SAFE AT THE
ROYAL PORT OF LILLIPUT
I then took off my spectacles, and waiting about an hour till the
tide was a little fallen, I waded through the middle with my cargo,
and arrived safe at the royal port of Lilliput.
The emperor and his whole court stood on the shore, expecting
the issue of this great adventure. They saw the ships move forward
in a large half-moon, but could not discern me, who was up to
my breast in water. When I advanced to the middle of the
channel, they were yet more in pain, because I was under water
to my neck. The emperor concluded me to be drowned, and that
the enemy's fleet was approaching in a hostile manner : but he
was soon eased of his fears ; for the channel growing shallower
every step I made, I came in a short time within hearing, and
38
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
holding up the end of the cable, by which the fleet was fastened,
I cried, in a loud voice, Long live the most puissant emperor of
Lilliput ! This great prince received me at my landing with all
possible encomiums, and created me a nardac upon the spot, which
is the highest title of honour among them.
His majesty desired I would take some other opportunity of
bringing all the rest of his enemy's ships into his ports. And so
unmeasurable is the ambition of princes, that he seemed to think
of nothing less than reducing the whole empire of Blefuscu into
a province, and governing it by a viceroy ; of destroying the
Big-endian exiles, and compelling that people to break the smaller
end of their eggs, by which he would remain the sole monarch
of the world. But I endeavoured to divert him from this design,
by many arguments drawn from the topics of policy as well as
justice ; and I plainly protested, that I would never be an instru-
ment of bringing a free and brave people into slavery ; and when
the matter was debated in council, the wisest part of the ministry
were of my opinion.
This open, bold declaration of mine, was so opposite to the
schemes and politics of his imperial majesty, that he could never
forgive it. He mentioned it in a very artful manner at council,
where I was told that some of the wisest appeared at least, by
their silence, to be of my opinion ; but others, who were my
secret enemies, could not forbear some expressions which by a
side-wind reflected on me ; and from this time began an intrigue
between his majesty and a junto of ministers, maliciously bent
against me, which broke out in less than two months, and had
like to have ended in my utter destruction. Of so little weight
are the greatest services to princes, when put into the balance
with a refusal to gratify their passions.
About three weeks after this exploit, there arrived a solemn
embassy from Blefuscu, with humble offers of a peace ; which
was soon' concluded, upon conditions very advantageous to our
emperor, wherewith I shall not trouble the reader. There were
six ambassadors with a train of about five hundred persons : and
their entry was very magnificent, suitable to the grandeur of their
master, and the importance of their business. When their treaty
was finished, wherein I did them several good offices by the credit
I now had, or at least appeared to have, at court, their excellencies,
who were privately told how much I had been their friend, made
39
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
me a visit in form. They began with many compliments upon
my valour and generosity, invited me to that kingdom in the
emperor their master's name, and desired me to show them some
proofs of my prodigious strength, of which they had heard so
many wonders ; wherein I readily obliged them, but shall not
trouble the reader with the particulars.
When I had for some time entertained their excellencies, to their
infinite satisfaction and surprise, I desired they would do me the
honour to present my most humble respects to the emperor their
master, the renown of whose virtues had so justly filled the whole
world with admiration, and whose royal person I resolved to attend
before I returned to my own country. Accordingly, the next time
I had the honour to see our emperor, I desired his general licence
to wait on the Blefuscudian monarch, which he was pleased to
grant me, as I could plainly perceive, in a very cold manner ; but
could not guess the reason, till I had a whisper from a certain
person, that Flimnap and Bolgolam had represented my intercourse
with those ambassadors as a mark of disaffection ; from which I
am sure my heart was wholly free. And this was the first time
I began to conceive some imperfect idea of courts and ministers.
It is to be observed, that these ambassadors spoke to me by
an interpreter, the languages of both empires differing as much
from each other as any two in Europe, and each nation priding
itself upon the antiquity, beauty, and energy of their own tongues,
with an avowed contempt for that of their neighbour : yet our
emperor, standing upon the advantage he had got by the seizure
of their fleet, obliged them to deliver their credentials, and make
their speech, in the Lilliputian tongue. And it must be confessed,
that from the great intercourse of trade and commerce between
both realms, from the continual reception of exiles which is mutual
among them, and from the custom, in each empire, to send their
young nobility and richer gentry to the other, in order to polish
themselves by seeing the world, and understanding men and manners ;
there are few persons of distinction, or merchants, or seamen, who
dwell in the maritime parts, but what can hold conversation in
both tongues ; as I found some weeks after, when I went to pay
my respects to the emperor of Blefuscu, which, in the midst of
great misfortunes, through the malice of my enemies, proved a very
happy adventure to me, as I shall relate in its proper place.
40
MILDENDO
CHAPTER VI
LTHOUGH I intend to leave the description of this
empire to a particular treatise, yet, in the mean time, I
am content to gratify the curious reader with some
general ideas. As the common size of the natives is
somewhat under six inches high, so there is an exact
proportion in all other animals, as well as plants and trees : for
instance, the tallest horses and oxen are between four and five inches
in height, the sheep an inch and half, more or less ; their geese about
the bigness of a sparrow, and so the several gradations downwards,
till you come to the smallest, which, to my sight were almost
invisible ; but nature has adapted the eyes of the Lilliputians to all
objects proper for their view : they see with great exactness, but at
no great distance. And to show the sharpness of their sight towards
objects that are near, I have been much pleased observing a cook
pulling a lark, which was not so large as a common fly ; and a young
girl threading an invisible needle with invisible silk.
Their tallest trees are about seven feet high : I mean some of
G 41
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
those in the great royal park, the tops whereof I could but just reach
with my fist clenched. The other vegetables are in the same pro-
portion ; but this I leave to the reader's imagination.
I shall say but little at present of their learning, which for many
ages has flourished in all its branches among them : but their manner
of writing is very peculiar, being neither from the left to the right,
like the Europeans ; nor from the right to the left, like the Arabians ;
nor from up to down, like the Chinese ; nor from down to up, like
the Cascagians ; but aslant, from one corner of the paper to the
other, like ladies in England.
They bury their dead with
their heads directly downward,
because they hold an opinion
that in eleven thousand moons
they are all to rise again ; in
which period the earth (which
they conceive to be flat) will
turn upside down, and by this
means they shall, at their resur-
rection, be found ready stand-
ing on their feet. The learned
among them confess the ab-
surdity of this doctrine ; but
the practice still continues, in
compliance to the vulgar.
There are some laws and
customs in this empire very
peculiar ; and if they were not
so directly contrary to those of my own dear country, I should
be tempted to say a little in their justification. It is only to be
wished they were as well executed. The first I shall mention,
relates to informers. All crimes against the state are punished
here with the utmost severity ; but if the person accused makes
his innocence plainly to appear upon his trial, the accuser is
immediately put to an ignominious death ; and out of his goods or
lands the innocent person is quadruply recompensed for the loss of
his time, for the danger he underwent, for the hardship of his
imprisonment, and for all the charges he has been at in making his
defence. Or, if that fund be deficient, it is largely supplied by the
crown. The emperor also confers on him some public mark of his
42
A YOUNG GIRL THREADING AN INVISIBLE
NEEDLE WITH INVISIBLE SILK
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
favour, and proclamation is made of his innocence through the
whole city.
They look upon fraud as a greater crime than theft, and therefore
seldom fail to punish it with death ; for they allege, that care and
vigilance, with a very common understanding, may preserve a man's
goods from thieves, but honesty has no fence against superior cunning ;
and since it is necessary that there should be a perpetual intercourse
of buying and selling, and dealing upon credit, where fraud is
permitted and connived at, or has no law to punish it, the honest
dealer is always undone, and the knave gets the advantage. I
remember, when I was once interceding with the king for a criminal
who had wronged his master of a great sum of money, which he had
received by order, and ran away with ; and happening to tell his
majesty by way of extenuation, that it was only a breach of trust, the
emperor thought it monstrous in me to offer as a defence the greatest
aggravation of the crime ; and truly I had little to say in return,
farther than the common answer, that different nations had different
customs ; for, I confess I was heartily ashamed.
Although we call rewards and punishments the two hinges upon
which all government turns, yet I could never observe this maxim
to be put in practice by any nation, except that of Lilliput. Who-
ever can there bring sufficient proof that he has strictly observed the
laws of his country for seventy-three moons, has a claim to certain
privileges, according to his quality and condition of life, with a
proportionable sum of money out of a fund appropriated for that
use : he likewise acquires the title of snilpall, or legal, which is
added to his name, but does not descend to his posterity. And these
people thought it a prodigious defect of policy among us, when I
told them that our laws were enforced only by penalties, without any
mention of reward. It is upon this account that the image of
Justice, in their courts of judicature, is formed with six eyes, two
before, as many behind, and on each side one, to signify circumspec-
tion ; with a bag of gold open in her right hand, and a sword
sheathed in her left, to show that she is more disposed to reward
than to punish.
In choosing persons for all employments, they have more regard
to good morals than to great abilities ; for, since government is
necessary to mankind, they believe that the common size of human
understanding is fitted to some station or other ; and that Providence
never intended to make the management of public affairs a mystery
43
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
to be comprehended only by a few persons of sublime genius, of
which there seldom are three born in an age : but they suppose truth,
justice, temperance, and the like, to be in every man's power ; the
practise of which virtues, assisted by experience and a good intention,
would qualify any man for the service of his country, except where
a course of study is required. But they thought the want of moral
virtues was so far from being supplied by superior endowments of
the mind, that employments could never be put into such dangerous
hands as those of persons so qualified ; and at least, that the mistakes
committed by ignorance, in a virtuous disposition, would never be of
such fatal consequence to the public weal, as the practices of a man
whose inclinations led him to be corrupt, and who had great abilities
to manage, to multiply, and defend his corruptions.
In like manner, the disbelief of a Divine Providence renders
a man incapable of holding any public station ; for since kings
avow themselves to be the deputies of Providence, the Lilliputians
think nothing can be more absurd than for a prince to employ such
men as disown the authority under which he acts.
In relating these and the following laws, I would only be
understood to mean the original institutions, and not the most
scandalous corruptions, into which these people are fallen by the
degenerate nature of man. For, as to that infamous practice of
acquiring great employments by dancing on the ropes, or badges
of favour and distinction by leaping over sticks and creeping under
them, the reader is to observe that they were first introduced by
the grandfather of the emperor now reigning, and grew to the
present height by the gradual increase of party and faction.
Ingratitude is among them a capital crime, as we read it to have
been in some other countries : for they reason thus ; that whoever
makes ill returns to his benefactor, must needs be a common enemy
to the rest of mankind, from whom he has received no obligation,
and therefore such a man is not fit to live.
They have in every town public nurseries, where all parents,
except cottagers and labourers, are obliged to send their infants of
both sexes to be reared and educated, when they come to the age
of twenty moons, at which time they are supposed to have some
rudiments of docility. These schools are of several kinds, suited to
different qualities, and to both sexes. They have certain professors
well skilled in preparing children for such a condition of life as
befits the rank of their parents, and their own capacities, as well as
44
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
inclinations. I shall first say something of the male nurseries, and
then of the female.
The nurseries for males of noble or eminent birth, are provided
with grave and learned professors, and their several deputies. The
clothes and food of the children are plain and simple. They are
bred up in the principles of honour, justice, courage, modesty,
clemency, religion, and love of their country ; they are always
employed in some business, except in the times of eating and sleeping,
which are very short, and two hours for diversions, consisting of
bodily exercises. They are dressed by men till four years of age,
and then are obliged to dress themselves, although their quality be
ever so great. They are never suffered to converse with servants,
but go together, in smaller greater numbers, to take their diversions,
and always in the presence of a professor, or one of his deputies :
whereby they avoid those early bad impressions of folly and vice,
to which our children are subject. Their parents are suffered to see
them only twice a year ; the visit is to last but an hour ; they are
allowed to kiss the child at meeting and parting ; but a professor,
who always stands by on those occasions, will not suffer them to
whisper, or use any fondling expressions, or bring any presents of
toys, sweetmeats, and the like.
The pension from each family for the education and entertain-
ment of a child, upon failure of due payment, is levied by the
emperor's officers.
The nurseries for children of ordinary gentlemen, merchants,
traders, and handicrafts, are managed proportionably after the same
manner ; only those designed for trades are put out apprentices at
eleven years old : whereas those of persons of quality continue in
their nurseries till fifteen, which answers to one and twenty with
us ; but the confinement is gradually lessened for the last three
years.
In the female nurseries, the young girls of quality are educated
much lik'e the males, only they are dressed by orderly servants of
their own sex ; but always in the presence of a professor or deputy,
till they come to dress themselves, which is at five years old. And
if it be found that these nurses ever presume to entertain the girls
with frightful or foolish stories, or the common follies practised by
chambermaids among us, they are publicly whipped thrice about
the city, imprisoned for a year, and banished for life to the most
desolate part of the country. Thus the young ladies there are as
45
GULLIVER'S T l< A V h J,S
h ashamed of hem:; < < , -.-/a M I , a nd fools as the men, and despise
.ill per. on a I ornaments, beyond decency and < lea ul mess : neither (lid
I perceive any dilfen m e 111 ih'ii education mad': by th'-n difference
of sex, only thai the exercises of the female, were not altoj-ethei BO
lobnsl ; and that some nile 1 , wn jovii lli'in I'l.ilm;; to domesti'
hl> , and -i Mii.dl'-i COmpaSS of leaiinn;; was enjoined them : I'.j the
maxim is, that amon;' people of ipiality, a wife, should be always
a le.r.onable and a :; i ' e.i bl<- i om pan ion , be<air,e sh'- lannot always be
young, When the ;;iils air twelve year, old., wlmh amon;; them
i the mat iia;;e.ihle age, then p. ii' nls 01 jMiaidians lake them home,
with ;MI.II expressions ol ^latitude to the professors, and seldom
without tear, of the youn;; lady and hci ' ompamons.
In the nurseries of female', of the me.tnei soit, the children arc
iir.liniled in all kinds of woiks piopei foi then BCX, and their
several de;M''', , thoSC intended for appi nil i< es are, dismissed at nine
year, old, the ie-,| aie kept until thllleen.
The mranei families who have < liildren at these nurseries are
obliged, beside then annual pension, wlmh is as low as possible, to
i'-liiin to the stewaid of the (misery a small monthly share of their
;"-iim;'s, ic> be a poilion for the < hild ; and therefore all parents arc
limited in then expense, hy I he law. I'oi the I -ilh put tans think
nolhm;; i an be moie unjust, than foi people to bnii;; children into
(he world, and leave the buiden of supporting ihem on (lie
piibln . As to per, oir, of <pialily, they ;;ive security to appropriate
a leitain sum for eai h ilnld, suitable to then (ondition: and
these funds are always managed with ;;ood husbandry and the
most ex. H I |ir.t li e.
'I In < oi ia;;ii s and labourer, keep tin n children at home, their
husinev, lii in;; only to till ami iiillivale the earth, and therefore
then education is of little c onsecpicnc r to the public : but the old
and diseased amon;; them, are supported by hospitals; for begging
r, a 1 1 adc unknown in tins kingdom.
And line il may, peihaps, divnl the nnious reader, to ^ive
some- account of my domestic, and my manner of livm;; in this
country, dmin;; a residence "1 nine months and thirteen days.
Jlavin;; a head mec hanic ally turned, and hem;; likewise forced by
necessity, I had made lor mysell a table and chair convenient
enoiij-h, oul of the lai;;est I ices in the royal park. Two hundred
Sempstresses were employed to make- me: shirts and linen lor my bed
and table, all ol ihr slion;;esl and coarsest kind ihey could J^ct,
LET FALL A PLUMB-LINE FROM MY COLLAR TO THE FLOOR
47
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
which, however, they were forced to quilt together in several folds,
for the thickest was some degrees finer than lawn. Their linen is
usually three inches wide, and three feet make a piece. The
sempstresses took my measure as I lay on the ground, one standing
at my neck, and another at my mid-leg, with a strong cord
extended, that each held by the end, while a third measured the
length of the cord with a rule of an inch long. Then they
measured my right thumb, and desired no more ; for by a
mathematical computation, that twice round the thumb is once
round the wrist, and so on to the neck and the waist, and by the
help of my old shirt, which I displayed on the grouud before them
for a pattern ; they fitted me exactly. Three hundred tailors were
employed in the same manner to make me clothes ; but they had
another contrivance for taking my measure. I kneeled down, and
they raised a ladder from the ground to my neck ; upon this ladder
one of them mounted, and let fall a plumb-line from my collar to
the floor, which just answered the length of my coat ; but my
waist and arms I measured myself. When my clothes were finished,
which was done in my house (for the largest of theirs would not
have been able to hold them), they looked like the patchwork made
by the ladies in England, only that mine were all of a colour.
I had three hundred cooks to dress my victuals, in little con-
venient huts built about my house, where they and their families
lived, and prepared me two dishes a-piece. I took up twenty
waiters in my hand, and placed them on the table ; a hundred more
attended below on the ground, some with dishes of meat, and some
with barrels of wine and other liquors slung on their shoulders, all
which the waiters above drew up, as I wanted, in a very ingenious
manner by certain cords, as we draw the bucket up a well in Europe.
A dish of their meat was a good mouthful, and a barrel of their
liquor a reasonable draught. Their mutton yields to ours, but their
beef is excellent. I have had a sirloin so large, that I have been
forced to make three bites of it ; but this is rare. My servants were
astonished to see me eat it, bones and all, as in our country we do the
leg of a lark. Their geese and turkeys I usually ate at a mouthful,
and I confess they far exceed ours. Of their smaller fowl, I could
take up twenty or thirty at the end of my knife.
One day his imperial majesty, being informed of my way of
living, desired that himself and his royal consort, with the young
princes of the blood of both sexes, might have the happiness, as he
48
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
was pleased to call it, of dining with me. They came accordingly,
and I placed them upon chairs of state, on my table, just over against
me, with their guards about them. Flimnap, the lord high-treasurer,
attended there likewise, with his white staff ; and I observed he often
looked on me with a sour countenance, which I would not seem to
regard, but ate more than usual, in honour to my dear country, as
well as to fill the court with admiration. I have some private reasons
to believe, that this visit from his majesty gave Flimnap an oppor-
tunity of doing me ill offices to his master. That minister had
always been my secret enemy, though he outwardly caressed me
more than was usual to the moroseness of his nature. He represented
to the emperor the low condition of his treasury ; that he was forced
to take up money at a great discount ; that exchequer bills would
not circulate under nine per cent, below par; that, in short, I had
cost his majesty above a million and a half of sprugs (their greatest
gold coin, about the bigness of a spangle) ; and, upon the whole,
that it would be advisable in the emperor to take the first fair
occasion of dismissing me.
49
A CONSIDERABLE PERSON AT COURT CAME TO MY HOUSE VERY PRIVATELY
AT NIGHT, IN A CLOSE CHAIR
CHAPTER VII
IEFORE I proceed to give an account of my leaving this
kingdom it may be proper to inform the reader of a
private intrigue which had been for two months forming
against me. I had been hitherto, all my life, a stranger to
courts, for which I was unqualified by the meanness of
my condition. I had indeed heard and read enough of the dis-
positions of great princes and ministers ; but never expected to have
found such terrible effects of them in so remote a country, governed,
as I thought, by very different maxims from those in Europe.
When I was just preparing to pay my attendance on the emperor
of Blefuscu, a considerable person at court (to whom I had been
very serviceable, at a time when he lay under the highest displeasure
of his imperial majesty), came to my house very privately at night,
in a close chair, and, without sending his name, desired admittance.
The chairmen were dismissed : I put the chair, with his lordship in
it, into my coat-pocket ; and giving orders to a trusty servant, to say
I was indisposed and gone to sleep, I fastened the door of my house,
placed the chair on the table, according to my usual custom, and sat
down by it. After the common salutations were over, observing his
lordship's countenance full of concern, and inquiring into the reason,
he desired I would hear him with patience, in a matter that highly
5
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
concerned my honour and my life. His speech was to the following
effect, for I took notes of it as soon as he left me :
You are to know, said he, that several committees of council
have been lately called, in the most private manner, on your account ;
and it is but two days since his majesty came to a full resolution.
You are very sensible that Skyris Bolgolam (gal bet or high-
admiral) has been your mortal enemy, almost ever since your
arrival. His original reasons I know not ; but his hatred is
much increased since your great success against Blefuscu, by which
his glory as admiral is obscured. This lord, in conjunction with
Flimnap the high-treasurer,
whose enmity against you is
notorious, Limtoc the general,
Lalcon the chamberlain, and
Balmuff the grand justiciary,
have prepared articles of im-
peachment against you, for
treason and other capital
crimes.
This preface made me so
impatient, being conscious of
my own merits and inno-
cence, that I was going to
interrupt, when he entreated
me to be silent, and thus
proceeded :
Out of gratitude for the
favours you have done me, I
procured information of the whole proceedings, and a copy of the
articles ; wherein I venture my head for your service.
HE DESIRED I WOULD HEAR HIM WITH
PATIENCE
ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST QUINBUS
FLESTRIN, THE MAN-MOUNTAIN.
Article I.
That the said Quinbus Flestrin having brought the imperial fleet of
Blefuscu into the royal port, and being afterwards commanded by his
imperial majesty to seize all the other ships of the said empire of Blefuscu,
and reduce that empire to a province, to be governed by a "viceroy from
5 1
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
hence, and to destroy and put to death not only all the Big-endian exiles,
but likewise all the people of that empire 'who would not immediately for-
sake the Big-endian heresy ; he, the said Flestrin, like a false traitor
against his most auspicious, serene, imperial majesty, did petition to be
excused from the said service, upon pretence of unwillingness to force the
consciences, or destroy the liberties and lives of an innocent people.
Article II.
That whereas certain ambassadors arrived from the court of Blefuscu,
to sue for peace in his majesty's court ; he, the said Flestrin, did, like
a false traitor, aid, abet, comfort, and divert the said ambassadors, al-
though he knew them to be servants to a prince who was lately an open
enemy to his imperial majesty, and in open war against his said majesty.
Article III.
That the said Quinbus Flestrin, contrary to the duty of a faithful
subject, is now preparing to make a voyage to the court and empire of
Blefuscu, for which he has received only verbal license from his imperial
majesty, and, under colour of the said license does falsely and traitorously
intend to take the said voyage, and thereby to aid, comfort, and abet the
emperor of Blefuscu, so late an enemy, and in open war with his imperial
majesty aforesaid.
There are some other articles ; but these are the most impor-
tant, of which I have read you an abstract.
In the several debates upon this impeachment, it must be
confessed that his majesty gave many marks of his great lenity ;
often urging the services you had done him, and endeavouring to
extenuate your crimes. The treasurer and admiral insisted that
you should be put to the most painful and ignominious death, by
setting fire to your house at night ; and the general was to attend
with twenty thousand men, armed with poisoned arrows, to shoot
you on the face and hands. Some of your servants were to have
private orders to strew a poisonous juice on your shirts, which would
soon make you tear your own flesh, and die in the utmost torture.
The general came into the same opinion ; so that for a long time
there was a majority against you ; but his majesty resolving, if
possible, to spare your life, at last brought off the chamberlain.
Upon this incident, Reldresal, principal secretary for private
affairs, who always approved himself your true friend, was com-
5 2
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
manded by the emperor to deliver his opinion, which he accordingly
did ; and therein justified the good thoughts you have of him. He
allowed your crimes to be great, but that still there was room for
mercy, the most commendable virtue in a prince, and for which his
majesty was so justly celebrated. He said, the friendship between
you and him was so well known to the world, that perhaps the most
honourable board might think him partial : however, in obedience
to the command he had received, he would freely offer his
sentiments. That if his majesty, in consideration of your services,
and pursuant to his own merciful disposition, would please to spare
your life, and only give orders to put out both your eyes, he humbly
conceived that, by this expedient, justice might in some measure be
satisfied, and all the world would applaud the lenity of the emperor,
as well as the fair and generous proceedings of those who have the
honour to be his counsellors. That the loss of your eyes would be
no impediment to your bodily strength, by which you might still be
useful to his majesty : that blindness is an addition to courage, by
concealing dangers from us : that the fear you had for your eyes,
was the greatest difficulty in bringing over the enemy's fleet ; and it
would be sufficient for you to see by the eyes of the ministers, since
the greatest princes do no more.
This proposal was received with the utmost disapprobation by
the whole board. Bolgolam, the admiral, could not preserve his
temper ; but rising up in fury, said, he wondered how the secretary
durst presume to give his opinion for preserving the life of a traitor :
that the services you had performed were, by all true reasons of state,
the great aggravation of your crimes ; that the same strength which
enabled you to bring over the enemy's fleet, might serve, upon the
first discontent, to carry it back : that he had good reasons to
think you were a Big-endian in your heart ; and, as treason begins
in the heart before it appears in overt acts, so he accused you as a
traitor on that account, and therefore insisted you should be put to
death.
The treasurer was of the same opinion : he showed to what
straits his majesty's revenue was reduced, by the charge of maintain-
ing you, which would soon grow insupportable : that the secretary's
expedient of putting out your eyes, was so far from being a remedy
against this evil, that it would probably increase it, as is manifest
from the common practice of blinding some kind of fowls, after
which they fed the faster and grew sooner fat ; that his sacred
53
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
majesty and the council, who are your judges, were, in their own
consciences, fully convinced of your guilt, which was a sufficient
argument to condemn you to death, without the formal proofs
required by the strict letter of the law.
But his imperial majesty, fully determined against capital
punishment, was graciously pleased to say, that since the council
thought the loss of your eyes too easy a censure, some other may be
inflicted hereafter. And your friend the secretary, humbly desiring
to be heard again, in answer to what the treasurer had objected,
concerning the great charge his majesty was at in maintaining you,
said, that his excellency, who had the sole disposal of the emperor's
revenue, might easily provide against that evil, by gradually
lessening your establishment ; by which, for want of sufficient food,
you will grow weak and faint, and lose your appetite, and con-
sequently decay and consume in a few months ; neither would the
stench of your carcass be then so dangerous, when it should become
more than half diminished ; and immediately upon your death, five
or six thousand of his majesty's subjects might, in two or three days,
cut your flesh from your bones, take it away by cart-loads, and bury
it in distant parts, to prevent infection, leaving the skeleton as a
monument of admiration to posterity.
Thus by the great friendship of the secretary, the whole
affair was compromised. It was strictly enjoined, that the project
of starving you by degrees should be kept a secret ; but the sentence
of putting out your eyes was entered on the books ; none dissenting,
except Bolgolam the admiral.
In three days your friend the secretary will be directed to come
to your house, and read before you the articles of impeachment ; and
then to signify the great lenity and favour of his majesty and
council, whereby you are only condemned to the loss of your eyes,
which his majesty does not question you will gratefully and humbly
submit to ; and twenty of his majesty's surgeons will attend, in
order to see the operation well performed, by discharging very
sharp-pointed arrows into the balls of your eyes, as you lie on
the ground.
I leave to your prudence what measures you will take ; and
to avoid suspicion, I must immediately return in as private a
manner as I came.
His lordship did so ; and I remained alone, under many doubts
and perplexities of mind.
54
YOU WILL GROW WEAK AND FAINT
55
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
It was a custom introduced by this prince and his ministry (very
different, as I have been assured, from the practice of former times),
that after the court had decreed any cruel execution, either to
gratify the monarch's resentment, or the malice of a favourite,
the emperor always made a speech to his whole council, expressing
his great lenity and tenderness as qualities known and confessed by
all the world. This speech was immediately published throughout
the kingdom ; nor did anything terrify the people so much, as
those encomiums on his majesty's mercy ; because it was observed,
that the more these praises were enlarged and insisted on, the more
inhuman was the punishment, and the sufferer more innocent. And
as to myself, I must confess, having never been designed for a
courtier, either by my birth or education, I was so ill a judge
of things, that I could not discover the lenity and favour of this
sentence, but conceived it (perhaps erroneously) rather to be
rigorous than gentle. I sometimes thought of standing my trial ;
for, although I could not deny the facts alleged in the several
articles, yet I hoped they would admit of some extenuations. But
having in my life perused many state trials, which I ever observed
to terminate as the judges thought fit to direct, I durst not rely
on so dangerous a decision, in so critical a juncture, and against
such powerful enemies. Once, I was strongly bent upon resistance :
for, while I had liberty, the whole strength of that empire could
hardly subdue me, and I might easily with stones pelt the metro-
polis to pieces ; but I soon rejected that project with horror, by
remembering the oath I had made to the emperor, the favours
I received from him, and the high title of nardac he conferred
upon me. Neither had I so soon learned the gratitude of courtiers,
to persuade myself that his majesty's present severities acquitted me
of all past obligations.
At last, I fixed upon a resolution, for which it is probable
I may incure some censure, and not unjustly ; for I confess I
owe the preserving of my eyes, and consequently my liberty, to my
own great rashness and want of experience ; because, if I had then
known the nature of princes and ministers, which I have since
observed in many other courts, and their methods of treating
criminals less obnoxious than myself, I should, with great alacrity
and readiness, have submitted to so easy a punishment. But
hurried on by the precipitancy of youth, and having his imperial
majesty's license to pay my attendance upon the emperor of
56"
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
Blefuscu, I took this opportunity, before the three days were
elapsed, to send a letter to my friend the secretary, signifying
my resolution of setting out that morning for Blefuscu, pursuant to
the leave I had got ; and, without waiting for an answer, I went to
that side of the island where our fleet lay. I seized a large man-of-
war, tied a cable to the prow, and lifting up the anchors, I stripped
myself, put my clothes (together with my coverlet, which I carried
under my arm) into the vessel, and drawing it after me, between
wading and swimming, arrived at the royal port of Blefuscu, where
the people had long expected me.
They lent me two guides to direct me to the capital city, which
is of the same name. I held them in my hands, till I came within
two hundred yards of the gate, and desired them to signify my
arrival to one of the secretaries, and let him know I there waited his
majesty's command. I had an answer in about an hour, that his
majesty, attended by the royal family, and great officers of the court,
was coming out to receive me. I advanced a hundred yards. The
emperor and his train alighted from their horses, the empress and
ladies from their coaches, and I did not perceive they were in any
fright or concern. I lay on the ground to kiss his majesty's and the
empress's hand. I told his majesty, that I was come according to
my promise, and with the license of the emperor my master, to have
the honour of seeing so mighty a monarch, and to offer him any
service in my power, consistent with my duty to my own prince ;
not mentioning a word of my disgrace, because I had hitherto no
regular information of it, and might suppose myself wholly ignorant
of any such design ; neither could I reasonably conceive that the
emperor would discover the secret, while I was out of his power ;
wherein, however, it soon appeared I was deceived.
I shall not trouble the reader with the particular account of my
reception at this court, which was suitable to the generosity of so
great a prince ; nor of the difficulties I was in for want of a house and
bed, being forced to lie on the ground, wrapped up in my coverlet.
57
I OBSERVED, ABOUT HALF A LEAGUE OFF IN THE SEA
CHAPTER VIII
'SHREE days after my arrival, walking out of curiosity
to the north-east coast of the island, I observed about
half a league off in the sea, somewhat that looked
like a boat overturned. I pulled off my shoes and
stockings, and wading two or three hundred yards,
I found the object to approach nearer by force of the tide ; and then
plainly saw it to be a real boat, which I supposed might by some
tempest have been driven from a ship : whereupon I returned
immediately towards the city, and desired his imperial majesty to
lend me twenty of the tallest vessels he had left, after the loss of his
fleet, and three thousand seamen under the command of the vice-
admiral. This fleet sailed round, while I went back the shortest way to
the coast, where I first discovered the boat. I found the tide had driven
it still nearer. The seamen were all provided with cordage, which
I had beforehand twisted to a sufficient strength. When the ships
came up, I stripped myself and waded till I came within a hundred
yards of the boat, after which I was forced to swim till I got up to
58
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
it. The seamen threw me the end of the cord, which I fastened to
a hole in the forepart of the boat, and the other end to a man-of-
war ; but I found all my labour to little purpose ; for, being out of
my depth, I was not able to work. In this necessity I was forced to
swim behind, and push the boat forwards, as often as I could with
one of my hands ; and the tide favouring me, I advanced so far that
I could just hold up my chin and feel the ground. I rested two or
three minutes, and then gave the boat another shove, and so on, till
the sea was no higher than my arm-pits ; and now the most laborious
part being over, I took out my other cables, which were stowed in
one of the ships, and fastened them first to the boat, and then to nine
I WAS FORCED TO SWIM BEHIND
of the vessels which attended me ; the wind being favourable, the
seamen towed, and I shoved, until we arrived within forty yards of
the shore, and waiting till the tide was out, I got dry to the boat,
and by the assistance of two thousand men with ropes and engines, I
made a shift to turn it on its bottom, and found it was but little
damaged.
I shall not trouble the reader with the difficulties I was under,
by the help of certain paddles, which cost me ten days making, to
get my boat to the royal port of Blefuscu, where a mighty concourse
of people appeared upon my arrival, full of wonder at the sight of so
prodigious a vessel. I told the emperor that my good fortune had
thrown this boat in my way, to carry me to some place from whence
I might return into my native country ; and begged his majesty's
orders for getting materials to fit it up ; together with his license to
59
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
depart ; which, after some kind expostulations, he was pleased to
grant.
I did very much wonder, in all this time, not to have heard of
any express relating to me from our emperor to the court of Blefuscu.
But I was afterward given privately to understand, that his imperial
majesty, never imagining I had the least notice of his designs,
believed I was only gone to Blefuscu in performance of my promise,
according to the license he had given me, which was well known at
our court, and would return in a few days, when that ceremony was
ended. But he was at last in pain at my long absence ; and after
consulting with the treasurer and the rest of that cabal, a person of
quality was despatched with the copy of the articles against me.
This envoy had instructions to represent to the monarch of Blefuscu,
the great lenity of his master, who was content to punish me no
farther than with the loss of my eyes ; that I had fled from justice ;
and if I did not return in two hours, I should be deprived of my
title of nardac, and declared a traitor. The envoy farther added, that
in order to maintain the peace and amity between both empires, his
master expected that his brother of Blefuscu would give orders to
have me sent back to Lilliput, bound hand and foot, to be punished
as a traitor.
The emperor of Blefuscu, having taken three days to consult,
returned an answer consisting of many civilities and excuses. He
said, that, as for sending me bound, his brother knew it was im-
possible ; that although I had deprived him of his fleet, yet he owed
great obligations to me for many good offices I had done him in
making the peace. That, however, both their majesties would soon
be made easy ; for I had found a prodigious vessel on the shore, able
to carry me on the sea, which he had given orders to fit up, with my
cwn assistance and direction ; and he hoped, in a few weeks, both
empires would be freed from so insupportable an incumbrance.
With this answer the envoy returned to Lilliput, and the monarch
of Blefuscu related to me all that had passed ; offering me at the
same time (but under the strictest confidence) his gracious protection,
if I would continue in his service ; wherein although I believed him
sincere, yet I resolved never more to put any confidence in princes
or ministers, where I could possibly avoid it ; and therefore, with all
due acknowledgments for his favourable intentions, I humbly begged
to be excused. I told him, that since fortune, whether good or evil,
had thrown a vessel in my way, I was resolved to venture myself in
60
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
the ocean, rather than be an occasion of difference between two such
mighty monarchs. Neither did I find the emperor at all displeased ;
and I discovered, by a certain accident, that he was very glad of my
resolution, and so were most of his ministers.
These considerations moved me to hasten my departure some-
what sooner than I intended ; to which the court, impatient to have
me gone, very readily contributed. Five hundred workmen were
employed to make two sails to my boat, according to my directions,
by quilting thirteen fold of their strongest linen together. I was at
the pains of making ropes and cables, by twisting ten, twenty, or
thirty, of the thickest and strongest of theirs. A great stone that I
happened to find, after a long search, by the sea-shore, served me for
an anchor. I had the tallow of three hundred cows, for greasing my
boat, and other uses. I was at incredible pains in cutting down
some of the largest timber trees for oars and masts, wherein I was,
however, much assisted by his majesty's ship-carpenters, who helped
me in smoothing them, after I had done the rough work.
In about a month, when all was prepared, I sent to receive his
majesty's commands, and to take my leave. The emperor and
royal family came out of the palace ; I lay down on my face to kiss
his hand, which he very graciously gave me ; so did the empress
and young princes of the blood. His majesty presented me with
fifty purses of two hundred spn/gs apiece, together with his picture
at full length, which I put immediately into one of my gloves, to
keep it from being hurt. The ceremonies at my departure were
too many to trouble the reader with at this time.
I stored the boat with the carcases of a hundred oxen and three
hundred sheep, with bread and drink proportionable, and as much
meat ready-dressed as four hundred cooks could provide. I took
with me six cows and two bulls alive, with as many ewes and rams,
intending to carry them into my own country ; and to feed them
on board, I had a good bundle of hay, and a bag of corn. I would
gladly have taken a dozen of the natives, but this was a thing the
emperor would by no means permit ; and, besides a diligent search
into my pockets, his majesty engaged my honour not to carry away
any of his subjects, although with their own consent and desire.
Having thus prepared all things as well as I was able, I set sail,
on the twenty-fourth day of September 1701, at six in the
morning ; and when I had gone about four leagues to the north-
ward, the wind being at south-east, at six in the evening, I descried
61
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
a small island, about half a league to the north-west. I advanced
forward, and cast anchor on the lee side of the island, which seemed
to be uninhabited. I then took some refreshment, and went to my
rest. I slept well, and I conjecture at least six hours, for I found
the day broke in two hours after I awaked. It was a clear night.
I ate my breakfast before the sun was up ; and heaving anchor, the
wind being favourable, I steered the same course that I had done
the day before, wherein I was directed by my pocket compass.
My intention was to reach, if possible, one of those islands
which I had reason to believe lay to the north-east of Van Diemen's
Land. I discovered nothing
all that day ; but upon the
next, about three in the after-
noon, when I had by my
computation, made twenty-
four leagues from Blefuscu, I
descried a sail steering to the
south-east ; my course was
due east. I hailed her, but
could get no answer; yet I
found I gained upon her, for
the wind slackened. I made
all the sail I could, and in half
an hour she spied me, then
hung out her ancient, and
discharged a gun. It is not
easy to express the joy I was
in, upon the unexpected hope
of once more seeing my beloved country, and the dear pledges I
had left in it. The ship slackened her sails, and I came up with
her between five and six in the evening, September 26 ; but my
heart leaped within me to see her English colours. I put my cows
and sheep into my coat-pockets, and got on board with all my little
cargo of provisions.
The vessel was an English merchantman, returning from Japan
by the North and South seas ; the captain, Mr. John Biddel of
Deptford, a very civil man and an excellent sailor. We were now
in the latitude of 30 degrees south ; there were about fifty men in
the ship ; and here I met an old comrade of mine, one Peter
Williams, who gave me a good character to the captain. This
62
I TOOK MY BLACK CATTLE AND SHEEP
OUT OF MY POCKET
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
gentleman treated me with kindness, and desired I would let him
know what place I came from last, and whither I was bound ;
which I did in a few words, but he thought I was raving, and that
the dangers I had underwent had disturbed my head ; whereupon I
took my black cattle and sheep out of my pocket, which, after great
astonishment, clearly convinced him of my veracity. I then showed
him the gold given me by the emperor of Lilliput, together with his
majesty's picture at full length, and some other rarities of that
country. I gave him two purses of two hundred sprtigs each, and
promised, when we arrived in England, to make him a present of a
cow and a sheep.
I shall not trouble the reader with a particular account of this
voyage, which was very prosperous for the most part. We arrived
in the Downs on the I3th of April 1702. I had only one mis-
fortune, that the rats on board carried away one of my sheep : I
found her bones in a hole, picked clean from the flesh. The rest of
my cattle I got safe on shore, and set them a-grazing in a bowling-
green at Greenwich, where the fineness of the grass made them feed
very heartily, though I had always feared the contary : neither
could I possibly have preserved them in so long a voyage, if the
captain had not allowed me some of his best biscuit, which, rubbed
to powder, and mingled with water, was their constant food. The
short time I continued in England, I made a considerable profit by
showing my cattle to many persons of quality and others ; and
before I began my second voyage I sold them for six hundred
pounds. Since my last return I find the breed is considerably
increased, especially the sheep, which I hope will prove much to the
advantage of the woollen manufacture, by the fineness of the
fleeces.
I stayed but two months with my wife and family, for my
insatiable desire of seeing foreign countries would suffer me to
continue no longer. I left fifteen hundred pounds with my wife,
and fixed her in a good house at RedrifF. My remaining stock I
carried with me, part in money and part in goods, in hopes to
improve my fortunes. My eldest uncle John had left me an estate
in land near Epping of about thirty pounds a-year, and I had a long
lease of the Black Bull in Fetter-lane, which yielded me as much
more ; so that I was not in any danger of leaving my family upon
the parish. My son Johnny, named so after his uncle, was at the
grammar-school, and a towardly child. My daughter Betty (who is
63
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
now well married, and has children) was then at her needlework. I
took leave of my wife and boy and girl, with tears on both sides,
and went on board the Adventure, a merchant ship of three hundred
tons, bound for Surat, Captain John Nicholas, of Liverpool, com-
mander. But my account of this voyage must be referred to the
Second Part of my Travels.
THE END OF THE FIRST PART.
6 4
BUT HAVING COT NORTHWARD OF THAT ISLAND
PART II
A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG
CHAPTER I
AVING been condemned by nature and fortune to an
active and restless life, in ten months after my return
I again left my native country, and took ship in
the Downs,' on the 2oth day of June 1702, in the
Adventure, Captain John Nicholas, a Cornishman,
commander, bound for Surat. We had a very prosperous gale, till
we arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, where we landed for fresh
water ; but discovering a leak, we unshipped our goods, and
wintered there ; for the captain falling sick of an ague, we could
not leave" the Cape till the end of March. We then set sail, and
had a good voyage till we passed the Straits of Madagascar ; but
having got northward of that island, and to about five degrees south
latitude, the winds, which in those seas are observed to blow a
constant equal gale between the north and west, from the beginning
of December to the beginning of May, on the igth of April
began to blow with much greater violence, and more westerly than
usual, continuing so for twenty days together : during which time,
65
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
we were driven a little to the east of the Molucca Islands, and about
three degrees northward of the line, as our captain found by an
observation he took the and day of May, at which time the wind
THE ADVENTURE
ceased, and it was a perfect calm ; whereat I was not a little
rejoiced. But he being a man well experienced in the navigation
of those seas, bid us all prepare against a storm, which accordingly
happened the day following; for a southern wind, called the
southern monsoon, began to set in.
Finding it was like to overblow, we took in our sprit-sail, and
66
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
stood by to hand the fore-sail ; but, making foul weather, we looked
the guns were all fast, and handed the mizen. The ship lay very
broad off, so we thought it better spooning before the sea, than
trying or hulling. We reefed the fore-sail and set him, we hauled
aft the fore-sheet ; the helm was hard-a-weather. The ship wore
bravely. We belayed the fore down-haul ; but the sail was split,
and we hauled down the yard, and got the sail into the ship, and
unbound all the things clear of it. It was a very fierce storm ;
the sea broke strange and dangerous. We hauled off upon the
laniard of the whip-staff, and helped the man at the helm. We
would not get down our topmast, but let all stand, because she
scudded before the sea very well, and we knew that the topmast
being aloft, the ship was the wholesomer, and made better way
through the sea, seeing we had sea-room.
When the storm was over, we set fore-sail and main-sail, and
brought the ship to. Then we set the mizen, main-top-sail, and
the fore-top-sail. Our course was east-north-east, the wind was at
south-west. We got the starboard tacks aboard, we cast off our
weather braces and lifts ; we set in the lee-braces, and hauled
forward by the weather-bowlings, and hauled them tight, and
belayed them, and hauled over the mizen tack to windward, and
kept her full and by as near as she could lie. During this storm,
which was followed by a strong wind west-south-west, we were
carried, by my computation, about five hundred leagues to the east,
so that the oldest sailor on board could not tell in what part of
the world we were. Our provisions held out well, our ship was
staunch, and our crew all in good health ; but we lay in the utmost
distress for water. We thought it best to hold on the same
course, rather than turn more northerly, which might have brought
us to the north-west part of Great Tartary, and into the Frozen
Sea.
On the 1 6th day of June, 1703, a boy on the topmast discovered
land. On the lyth, we came in full view of a great island, or
continent (for we knew not whether) ; on the south side whereof
was a small neck of land jutting out into the sea, and a creek too
shallow to hold a ship of above one hundred tons. We cast anchor
within a league of this creek, and our captain sent a dozen of his
men well armed in the long boat, with vessels for water, if any
could be found. I desired his leave to go with them, that I might
see the country, and make what discoveries I could.
6?
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
When we came to land, we saw no river, or spring, nor any
sign of inhabitants. Our men therefore wandered on the shore to
find out some fresh water near the sea, and I walked along about
a mile on the other side, where I observed the country all barren
and rocky. I now began to be weary, and seeing nothing to enter-
tain my curiosity, I returned gently down towards the creek ; and
the sea being full in my view, I saw our men already got into the
boat, and rowing for life to the ship. I was going to holla after
them, although it had been to little purpose, when I observed a
huge creature walking after them in the sea, as fast as he could :
he waded not much deeper than his knees, and took prodigious
strides ; but our men had the start of him half a league, and the
sea thereabouts being full of sharp pointed rocks, the monster was
not able to overtake the boat. This I was afterwards told, for I
durst not stay to see the issue of that adventure, but ran as fast as
I could the way I first went, and then climbed up a steep hill,
which gave me some prospect of the country. I found it fully
cultivated ; but that which first surprised me was the length of
the grass, which, in those grounds that seemed to be kept for hay,
was about twenty feet high.
I fell into a high road, for so I took it to be, though it served
to the inhabitants only as a footpath through a field of barley.
Here I walked on for some time, but could see little on either side,
it being now near harvest, and the corn rising at least forty feet.
I was an hour walking to the end of this field, which was fenced
in with a hedge of at least one hundred and twenty feet high,
and the trees so lofty that I could make no computation of their
altitude. There was a stile to pass from this field into the next.
It had four steps, and a stone to cross over when you come to
the uppermost. It was impossible for me to climb this stile,
because every step was six feet high, and the upper stone above
twenty.
I was endeavouring to find some gap in the hedge, when I dis-
covered one of the inhabitants in the next field, advancing towards
the stile, of the same size with him whom I saw in the sea pursuing
our boat. He appeared as tall as an ordinary spire steeple, and took
about ten yards at every stride, as near as I could guess. I was
struck with the utmost fear and astonishment, and ran to hide
myself in the corn, from whence I saw him at the top of the stile
looking back into the next field on the right hand, and heard him
68
THEY WENT TO REAP THE CORN IN THE FIELD WHERE I LAY
6 9
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
call in a voice many degrees louder than a speaking-trumpet ; but
the noise was so high in the air, that at first I certainly thought
it was thunder. Whereupon seven monsters, like himself, came
towards him, with reaping-hooks in their hands, each hook about
the largeness of six scythes. These people were not so well clad
as the first, whose servants or labourers they seemed to be ; for,
upon some words he spoke, they went to reap the corn in the field
where I lay. I kept from them at as great a distance as I could,
but was forced to move with extreme difficulty, for the stalks of
the corn were sometimes not above a foot distant, so that I could
hardly squeeze my body betwixt them. I made a shift to go
forward, till I came to a part of the field where the corn had been
laid by the rain and wind. Here it was impossible for me to
advance a step ; for the stalks were so interwoven, that I could
not creep through, and the beards of the fallen ears so strong and
pointed, that they pierced through my clothes into my flesh. At
the same time I heard the reapers not above a hundred yards
behind me.
Being quite dispirited with toil, and wholly overcome by grief
and despair, I lay down between two ridges, and heartily wished I
might there end my days. I bemoaned my desolate widow and
fatherless children. I lamented my own folly and wilfulness, in
attempting a second voyage, against the advice of all my friends
and relations. In this terrible agitation of mind, I could not forbear
thinking of Lilliput, whose inhabitants looked upon me as the
greatest prodigy that ever appeared in the world ; where I was able
to draw an imperial fleet in my hand, and perform those other
actions, which will be recorded for ever in the chronicles of that
empire, while posterity shall hardly believe them, although attested
by millions. 1 reflected what a mortification it must prove to me
to appear as inconsiderable in this nation, as one single Lilliputian
would be among us. But this I conceived was to be the least of
my misfortunes ; for, as human creatures are observed to be more
savage and cruel in proportion to their bulk, what could I expect
but to be a morsel in the mouth of the first among these enormous
barbarians that should happen to seize me ? Undoubtedly philo-
sophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or
little otherwise than by comparison. It might have pleased fortune,
to let the Lilliputians find some nation where the people were as
diminutive with respect to them, as they were to me. And who
70
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
knows but that even this prodigious race of mortals might be
equally overmatched in some distant part of the world, whereof we
have yet no discovery ?
Scared and confounded as I was, I could not forbear going on
with these reflections, when one of the reapers approaching within
ten yards of the ridge where I lay, made me apprehend that with
the next step I should be squashed to death under his foot, or cut
in two with his reaping-hook. And therefore, when he was again
about to move, I screamed as
loud as fear could make me ;
whereupon the huge creature
trod short, and looking round
about under him for some
time, at last espied me as I
lay on the ground.
He considered awhile, with
the caution of one who en-
deavours to lay hold on a
small dangerous animal in
such a manner that it may
not be able either to scratch
or bite him, as I myself have
sometimes done with a weasel
in England. At length he
ventured to take me up behind,
by the middle, between his
forefinger and thumb, and brought me within three yards of his
eyes, that he might behold my shape more perfectly. I guessed his
meaning, and my good fortune gave me so much presence of mind,
that 1 resolved not to struggle in the least as he held me in the air
about sixty feet from the ground, although he grievously pinched
my sides, for fear I should slip through his fingers. All I ventured
was to raise mine eyes toward the sun, and place my hands together
in a supplicating posture, and to speak some words in an humble
melancholy tone, suitable to the condition I then was in ; for I
apprehended every moment that he would dash me against the
ground, as we usually do any little hateful animal which we have a
mind to destroy. But my good star would have it, that he appeared
pleased with my voice and gestures, and began to look upon me as
a curiosity, much wondering to hear me pronounce articulate words,
7 1
AND BEGAN TO LOOK UPON ME AS
A CURIOSITY
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
although he could not understand them. In the mean time I was
not able to forbear groaning and shedding tears, and turning my
head towards my sides ; letting him know, as well as I could, how
cruelly I was hurt by the pressure of his thumb and finger. He
seemed to apprehend my meaning ; for, lifting up the lappet of his
coat, he put me gently into it, and immediately ran along with me
to his master, who was a substantial farmer, and the same person
I had first seen in the field.
The farmer having (as I suppose by their talk) received such
an account of me as his servant could give him, took a piece of
a small straw, about the size of a walking-staff, and therewith lifted
up the lappets of my coat ; which, it seems, he thought to be some
kind of covering that nature had given me. He blew my hair aside
to take a better view of my face. He called his hinds about him,
and asked them, as I afterwards learned, Whether they had ever
seen in the fields any little creature that resembled me ? he then
placed me softly on the ground upon all four, but I got immediately
up, and walked slowly backwards and forwards to let those people
see I had no intent to run away. They all sat down in a circle
about me, the better to observe my motions. I pulled off my hat,
and made a low bow towards the farmer. I fell on my knees, and
lifted up my hands and eyes, and spoke several words as loud as
I could ; I took a purse of gold out of my pocket, and humbly
presented it to him. He received it on the palm of his hand, and
then applied it close to his eye to see what it was, and afterwards
turned it several times with the point of a pin (which he took out
of his sleeve), but could make nothing of it. Whereupon I made a
sign that he should place his hand on the ground. I then took the
purse, and opening it, poured all the gold into his palm. There
were six Spanish pieces of four pistoles each, besides twenty or
thirty smaller coins. I saw him wet the tip of his little finger
upon his tongue, and take up one of my largest pieces, and then
another ; but he seemed to be wholly ignorant what they were.
He made me a sign to put them again into my purse, and the purse
again into my pocket, which, after offering it to him several times,
I thought it best to do.
The farmer, by this time, was convinced I must be a rational
creature. He spoke often to me ; but the sound of his voice
pierced my ears like that of a water-mill, yet his words were
articulate enough. I answered as loud as I could in several
72
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
languages, and he often laid his ear within two yards of me : but
all in vain, for we were wholly unintelligible to each other. He
then sent his servants to their work, and taking his handkerchief
out of his pocket, he doubled and spread it on his left hand, which
he placed flat on the ground with the palm upwards, making me a
sign to step into it, as I could easily do, for it was not above a foot
in thickness. I thought it my part to obey, and, for fear of falling,
laid myself at length upon the handkerchief, with the remainder of
which he lapped me up to the head for further security, and in this
manner carried me home to his house. There he called his wife,
and showed me to her ; but she screamed and ran back, as women
in England do at the sight of a toad or a spider. However, when
she had awhile seen my behaviour, and how well I observed the
signs her husband made, she was soon reconciled, and by degrees
grew extremely tender of me.
It was about twelve at noon, and a servant brought in dinner.
It was only one substantial dish of meat (fit for the plain condition
of a husbandman), in a dish of about four-and-twenty feet diameter.
The company were, the farmer and his wife, three children, and an
old grandmother. When they were sat down, the farmer placed
me at some distance from him on the table, which was thirty
feet high from the floor. I was in a terrible fright, and kept as
far as I could from the edge, for fear of falling. The wife minced
a bit of meat, then crumbled some bread on a trencher, and placed
it before me. I made her a low bow, took out my knife and
fork, and fell to eat, which gave them exceeding delight. The
mistress sent her maid for a small dram cup, which held about
three gallons, and rilled with drink ; I took up the vessel with
much difficulty in both hands, and in a most respectful manner
drank to her ladyship's health, expressing the words as loud as
I could in English, which made the company laugh so heartily
that I was almost deafened with the noise. This liquor tasted
like a srriall cider, and was not unpleasant.
Then the master made me a sign to come to his trencher
side ; but as I walked on the table, being in great surprise all
the time, as the indulgent reader will easily conceive and excuse,
I happened to stumble against a crust, and fell flat on my face,
but received no hurt. I got up immediately, and observing the
good people to be in much concern, I took my hat (which I
held under my arm out of good manners), and waving it over
73
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
my head, made three huzzas, to show I had got no mischief by
my fall. But advancing forwards toward my master (as I shall
henceforth call him), his youngest son, who sat next to him, an
arch boy of about ten years old, took me up by the legs, and
held me so high in the air that I trembled in every limb ; but his
father snatched me from him, and at the same time gave him
such a box on the left ear, as would have felled an European troop
of horse to the earth, ordering him to be taken from the table.
But being afraid the boy might owe me a spite, and well remem-
bering how mischievous all children among us naturally are to
sparrows, rabbits, young kittens, and puppy dogs, I fell on my
knees ; and pointing to the boy, made my master to understand
as well as I could, that I desired his son might be pardoned. The
father complied, and the lad took his seat again, whereupon I
went to him, and kissed his hand, which my master took, and
made him stroke me gently with it.
In the midst of dinner, my mistress's favourite cat leaped
into her lap. I heard a noise behind me like that of a dozen
stocking-weavers at work ; and turning my head, I found it
proceeded from the purring of that animal, who seemed to be
three times larger than an ox, as I computed by the view of
her head, and one of her paws, while her mistress was feeding
and stroking her. The fierceness of this creature's countenance
altogether discomposed me ; though I stood at the farther end
of the table, above fifty feet off; and although my mistress
held her fast, for fear she might give a spring, and seize me in
her talons. But it happened there was no danger, for the cat
took not the least notice of me, -when my master placed me within
three yards of her. And as I have been always told, and found
true by experience in my travels, that flying or discovering fear
before a fierce animal, is a certain way to make it pursue or
attack you, so I resolved, in this dangerous juncture, to show no
manner of concern. I walked with intrepidity five or six times
before the very head of the cat, and came within half a yard of her ;
whereupon she drew herself back, as if she were more afraid of me.
I had less apprehension concerning the dogs, whereof three or four
came into the room, as it is usual in farmers' houses ; one of which
was a mastiff, equal in bulk to four elephants, and a greyhound
somewhat taller than the mastiff, but not so large.
When dinner was almost done, the nurse came in with a child of
74
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
a year old in her arms, who immediately spied me, and began a
squall that you might have heard from London Bridge to Chelsea,
after the usual oratory of infants, to get me for a plaything. The
mother out of pure indulgence, took me up, and put me towards the
child, who presently seized me by the middle, and got my head into
his mouth, where I roared so loud that the urchin was frighted, and
let me drop, and I should infallibly have broke my neck, if the
mother had not held her apron under me. The nurse, to quiet her
babe made use of a rattle,
which was a kind of hollow
vessel filled with great stones,
and fastened by a cable to the
child's waist.
When dinner was done,
my master went out to his
labourers, and, as I could dis-
cover by his voice and gesture,
gave his wife a strict charge
to take care of me. I was
very much tired and disposed
to sleep, which my mistress
perceiving, she put me on her
own bed, and covered me with
a clean white handkerchief,
but larger and
the mainsail of
I slept about two hours, and dreamt I was at home with my wife
and children, which aggravated my sorrows when I awaked and
found myself alone in a vast room, between two and three hundred
feet wide, and above two hundred high, lying in a bed twenty yards
wide. My mistress was gone about her household affairs, and had
locked me in.
The bed was eight yards from the floor. Some natural necessities
required me to get down ; I durst not presume to call ; and if I had,
it would have been in vain, with such a voice as mine, at so great a
distance as from the room where I lay to the kitchen where the
family kept. While I was under these circumstances, two rats crept
up the curtains, and ran smelling backwards and forwards on the bed.
One of them came up almost to my face, whereupon I rose in a
fright, and drew out my hanger to defend myself. These horrible
75
coarser than
man-of-war.
TO DEFEND MYSELF
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
animals had the boldness to attack me on both sides, and one of them
held his fore-feet at my collar ; but I had the good fortune to rip up
his belly before he could do me any mischief. He fell down at my
feet ; and the other seeing the fate of his comrade, made his escape,
but not without one good wound on the back, which I gave him as
he fled, and made the blood run trickling from him. After this
exploit, I walked gently to and fro on the bed, to recover my breath
and loss of spirits. These creatures were of the size of a large mastiff,
but infinitely more nimble and fierce ; so that if I had taken off my
belt before I went to sleep, I must have infallibly been torn to pieces
and devoured. I measured the tail of the dead rat, and found it to
be two yards long, wanting an inch ; but it went against my stomach
to drag the carcass off the bed, where it lay still bleeding. I observed
it had yet some life, but with a strong slash across the neck, I
thoroughly dispatched it.
Soon after, my mistress came into the room, who seeing me all
bloody, ran and took me up in her hand. I pointed to the dead rat,
smiling and making other signs to show I was not hurt ; whereat she
was extremely rejoiced, calling the maid to take up the dead rat with
a pair of tongs, and throw it out of the window.
PLACED UPON A HANGING SHELF FOR FEAR OF THE RATS
CHAPTER II
]Y mistress had a daughter of nine years old, a child of
toward parts for her age, very dexterous at her needle,
and skilful in dressing her baby. Her mother and
she contrived to fit up the baby's cradle for me
against night : the cradle was put into a small drawer
of a cabinet, and the drawer placed upon a hanging shelf for fear of
the rats. This was my bed all the time I stayed with those people,
though made more convenient by degrees, as I began to learn their
language and make my wants known.
This young girl was so handy, that after I had once or twice
pulled off my clothes before her, she was able to dress and undress
me, though I never gave her that trouble when she would let me do
either myself. She made me seven shirts, and some other linen, of
as fine cloth as could be got, which indeed was coarser than sack-
cloth ; and these she constantly washed for me with her own hands.
She was likewise my school-mistress, to teach me the language :
when I pointed to anything, she told me the name of it in her own
tongue, so that in a few days I was able to call for whatever I had a
77
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
mind to. She was very good-natured, and not above forty feet high,
being little for her age. She gave me the name of Gri/Jrig, which
the family took up, and afterwards the whole kingdom. The word
imports what the Latins call nanunculus, the Italians Aomunce/efino, and
the English mannikin. To her I chiefly owe my preservation in that
country : we never parted while I was there ; I called her my
Glumdalclitch) or little nurse : and I should be guilty of great
ingratitude, if I omitted this honourable mention of her care and
affection towards me, which I heartily wish it lay in my power to
requite as she deserves, instead of being the innocent, but unhappy
instrument of her disgrace, as I have too much reason to fear.
It now began to be known and talked of in the neighbourhood,
that my master had found a strange animal in the field, about the
bigness of a splacnuck, but exactly shaped in every part like a human
creature ; which it likewise imitated in all its actions ; seemed to
speak in a little language of its own, had already learned several
words of theirs, went erect upon two legs, was tame and gentle,
would come when it was called, do whatever it was bid, had the
finest limbs in the world, and a complexion fairer than a nobleman's
daughter of three years old.
Another farmer, who lived hard by, and was a particular friend
of my master, came on a visit on purpose to inquire into the truth
of this story. I was immediately produced, and placed upon a table,
where I walked as I was commanded, drew my hanger, put it up
again, made my reverence to my master's guest, asked him in his
own language how he did, and told him he was 'welcome, just as my
little nurse had instructed me. This man, who was old and dim-
sighted, put on his spectacles to behold me better ; at which I could
not forbear laughing very heartily, for his eyes appeared like the full
moon shining into a chamber at two windows. Our people, who
discovered the cause of my mirth, bore me company in laughing, at
which the old fellow was fool enough to be angry and out of
countenance. He had the character of a great miser ; and, to my
misfortune, he well deserved it, by the cursed advice he gave my
master, to show me as a sight upon a market-day in the next town,
which was half an hour's riding, about two and twenty miles from
our house. I guessed there was some mischief contriving, when I
observed my master and his friend whispering long together, some-
times pointing at me ; and my fears made me fancy that I overheard
and understood some of their words.
78
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
But the next morning Glumdalclitch, my little nurse, told me the
whole matter, which she had cunningly picked out from her mother.
The poor girl laid me on her bosom, and fell a-weeping with shame
and grief. She apprehended some mischief would happen to me
from rude vulgar folks, who might squeeze me to death, or break
one of my limbs by taking me in their hands. She had also observed
how modest I was in my nature, how nicely I regarded my honour,
and what an indignity I should conceive it to be exposed for money
as a public spectacle to the meanest of the people. She said, her
papa and mamma had promised
that Grildrig should be hers ;
but now she found they meant
to serve her as they did last
year, when they pretended to
give her a lamb, and yet, as
soon as it was fat, sold it to a
butcher. For my own part, I
may truly affirm that I was less
concerned than my nurse. I
had a strong hope which never
left me, that I should one day
recover my liberty : and as to
the ignominy of being carried
about for a monster, I con-
sidered myself to be a perfect
stranger in the country, and
that such a misfortune could
never be charged upon me as a reproach, if ever I should return to
England ; since the king of Great Britain himself, in my condition,
must have undergone the same distress.
My master, pursuant to the advice of his friend, carried me in a
box the next market-day to the neighbouring town, and took along
with him his little daughter, my nurse, upon a pillion behind him.
The box was close on every side, with a little door for me to go in
and out, and a few gimlet holes to let in air. The girl had been so
careful to put the quilt of her baby's bed into it, for me to lie down
on. However, I was terribly shaken and discomposed in this journey,
though it were but of half an hour ; for the horse went about forty
feet at every step, and trotted so high, that the agitation was equal
to the rising and falling of a ship in a great storm, but much more
79
WITH A LITTLE DOOR FOR ME TO GO
IN AND OUT
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
frequent. Our journey was somewhat farther than from London
to St. Albans. My master alighted at an inn which he used to
frequent ; and after consulting awhile with the innkeeper, and
making some necessary preparations, he hired the grultrud, or crier,
to give notice through the town of a strange creature to be seen at
the sign of the Green Eagle, not so big as a splacnuck (an animal in
that country), very finely shaped, about six feet long, and in every
part of the body resembling a human creature, could speak several
words, and perform a hundred diverting tricks.
I was placed upon a table in the largest room of the inn, which
might be near three hundred feet square. My little nurse stood on
a low stool close to the table, to take care of me, and direct what I
should do. My master, to avoid a crowd, would suffer only thirty
people at a time to see me. I walked about on the table as the girl
commanded: she asked me questions as far as she knew my under-
standing of the language reached, and I answered them as loud as I
could. I turned about several times to the company, paid my
humble respects, said they were welcome, and used some other speeches
I had been taught. I took up a thimble filled with liquor, which
Glumdalclitch had given me for a cup, and drank their health. I
drew out my hanger, and flourished with it after the manner of
fencers in England. My nurse gave me part of a straw, which I
exercised as a pike, having learnt the art in my youth.
I was that day shown to twelve sets of company, and as often
forced to go over again with the same fopperies, till I was half dead
with weariness and vexation : for those who had seen me made such
wonderful reports, that the people were ready to break down the
doors to come in. My master for his own interest would not suffer
any one to touch me except my nurse ; and to prevent danger,
benches were set round the table at such a distance as to put me out
of everybody's reach. However, an unlucky schoolboy aimed a
hazel-nut directly at my head, which very narrowly missed me ; other-
wise it came with so much violence, that it would have infallibly
knocked out my brains, for it was almost as large as a small pumpion :
but I had the satisfaction to see the young rogue well beaten, and
turned out of the room.
My master gave public notice that he would show me again the
next market day ; and in the mean time he prepared a more con-
venient vehicle for me, which he had reason enough to do ; for I
was so tired with my first journey, and with entertaining company
80
GLUMDALCLITCH
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
for eight hours together, that I could hardly stand upon my legs,
or speak a word. It was at least three days before I recovered my
strength ; and that I might have no rest at home, all the neighbour-
ing gentlemen from a hundred miles round, hearing of my fame,
came to see me at my master's own house. There could not be
fewer than thirty persons, with their wives and children (for the
country was very populous) ; and my master demanded the rate of a
full room whenever he showed me at home, although it were only
to a single family : so that for some time I had but little ease every
day of the week (except Wednesday, which is their Sabbath),
although I were not carried to the town.
My master finding how profitable I was like to be, resolved to
carry me to the most considerable cities of the kingdom. Having,
therefore, provided himself with all things necessary for a long
journey, and settled his affairs at home, he took leave of his wife,
and upon the lyth of August 1703, about two months after
my arrival, we set out for the metropolis, situated near the middle
of that empire, and about three thousand miles' distance from
our house. My master made his daughter Glumdalclitch ride
behind him. She carried me on her lap, in a box tied about her
waist. The girl had lined it on all sides with the softest cloth
she could get, well quilted underneath, furnished it with her baby's
bed, provided me with linen and other necessaries, and made
everything as convenient as she could. We had no other company
but a boy of the house, who rode after us with the luggage.
My master's design was to show me in all the towns by the
way, and to step out of the road for fifty or a hundred miles, to any
village or person of quality's house where he might expect custom.
We made easy journeys, of not above seven or eight score miles
a day : for Glumdalclitch, on purpose to spare me, complained she
was tired with the trotting of the horse. She often took me out of
my box, at my own desire, to give me air, and show me the
country, 'but always held me fast by a leading-string. We passed
over five or six rivers, many degrees broader and deeper than
the Nile or the Ganges ; and there was hardly a rivulet so small as
the Thames at London Bridge. We were ten weeks in our
journey, and I was shown in eighteen large towns, besides many
villages and private families.
On the a6th day of October we arrived at the metropolis, called
in their language ILorbrulgrud^ or Pride of the Universe. My
81
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
master took a lodging in the principal street of the city, not far
from the royal palace, and put out bills in the usual form,
containing an exact description of my person and parts. He hired
a large room between three and four hundred feet wide. He
provided a table sixty feet in diameter, upon which I was to
act my part, and palisadoed it round three feet from the edge,
and as many high, to prevent my falling over. I was shown
ten times a-day, to the wonder and satisfaction of all people.
I could now speak the language tolerably well, and perfectly
understood every word that was spoken to me. Besides, I had
learnt their alphabet and could make a shift to explain a sentence
here and there ; for Glumdalclitch had been my instructor while
we were at home, and at leisure hours during our journey. She
carried a little book in her pocket not much larger than a Sanson's
Atlas ; it was a common treatise for the use of y un g gi f l s >
giving a short account of their religion : out of this she taught
me my letters, and interpreted the words.
82
A SLARDRAL, OR GENTLEMAN-USHER, CAME FROM COURT
CHAPTER III
HE frequent labours I underwent every day, made, in a
few weeks, a very considerable change in my health :
the more my master got by me, the more insatiable
he grew. I had quite lost my stomach and was
almost reduced to a skeleton. The farmer observed
it, and concluding I soon must die, resolved to make as good a
hand of me as he could. While he was thus reasoning and
resolving with himself, a slardral, or gentleman-usher, came
from court, commanding my master to carry me immediately
thither for the diversion of the queen and her ladies. Some of the
latter had already been to see me, and reported strange things of my
beauty, behaviour, and good sense.
Her majesty, and those who attended her, were beyond measure
delighted with my demeanour. I fell on my knees, and begged the
honour of kissing her imperial foot ; but this gracious princess
held out her little finger towards me (after I was set on a
table), which I embraced in both my arms, and put the tip of
it with the utmost respect to my lip. She made me some general
questions about my country and my travels, which I answered as
distinctly, and in as few words as I could. She asked, whether I
would be content to live at court ? I bowed down to the board
of the table, and humbly answered, that I was my master's slave :
83
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
but if I were at my own disposal, I should be proud to devote
my life to her majesty's service. She then asked my master
whether he were willing to sell me at a good price ? He, who
apprehended I could not live a month, was ready enough to part
with me, and demanded a thousand pieces of gold, which were
ordered him on the spot, each piece being about the bigness of
eight hundred moidores ; but allowing for the proportion of all
things between that country and Europe, and the high price of
gold among them, was hardly so great a sum as a thousand
guineas would be in England.
I then said to the queen, since
I was now her majesty's most
humble creature and vassal, I
must beg the favour that
Glumdalclitch, who had
always tended me with so
much care and kindness, and
understood to do it so well,
might be admitted into her
service, and continue to be my
nurse and instructor.
Her majesty agreed to my
petition, and easily got the
farmer's consent, who was
glad enough to have his
daughter preferred at court,
and the poor girl herself was
not able to hide her joy. My late master withdrew, bidding me
farewell, and saying he had left me in a good service ; to which
I replied not a word, only making him a slight bow.
The queen observed my coldness, and, when the farmer was
gone out of the apartment, asked me the reason. I made bold
to tell her majesty, that I owed no other obligation to my late
master, than his not dashing out the brains of a poor harmless
creature found by chance in his field ; which obligation was amply
recompensed by the gain he had made in showing me through half
the kingdom, and the price he had now sold me for. That the life
I had since led, was laborious enough to kill an animal of ten times
my strength. That my health was much impaired by the continual
drudgery of entertaining the rabble every hour of the day ; and
84
AND WAS ALMOST REDUCED TO A
SKELETON
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
that if my master had not thought my life in danger, her majesty
would not have got so cheap a bargain. But as I was out of all
fear of being ill-treated under the protection of so great and
good an empress, the ornament of nature, the darling of the world,
the delight of her subjects, the phcenix of the creation ; so, I hoped
my late master's apprehensions would appear to be groundless ;
for I already found my spirits to revive by the influence of her most
august presence.
This was the sum of my speech, delivered with great im-
proprieties and hesitation. The latter part was altogether framed in
the style peculiar to that people, whereof I learned some phrases
from Glumdalclitch, while she was carrying me to court.
The queen, giving great allowance for my defectiveness in
speaking, was, however, surprised at so much wit and good sense in
so diminutive an animal. She took me in her own hands, and
carried me to the king, who was then retired to his cabinet. His
majesty, a prince of much gravity and austere countenance, not well
observing my shape at first view, asked the queen after a cold
manner, how long it was since she grew fond of a splacnuck ? for
such it seems he took me to be, as I lay upon my breast in her
majesty's right hand. But this princess, who has an infinite deal of
wit and humour, set me gently on my feet upon the scrutoire, and
commanded me to give his majesty an account of myself, which I
did in a very few words ; and Glumdalclitch, who attended at the
cabinet door, and could not endure I should be out of her sight,
being admitted, confirmed all that had passed from my arrival at her
father's house.
The king, although he be as learned a person as any in his
dominions, had been educated in the study of philosophy, and
particularly mathematics ; yet when he observed my shape exactly,
and saw me walk erect, before I began to speak, conceived I might
be a piece of clock-work (which is in that country arrived to a very
great perfection), contrived by some ingenious artist. But when he
heard my voice, and found what I delivered to be regular and
rational, he could not conceal his astonishment. He was by no
means satisfied with the relation I gave him of the manner I came
into his kingdom, but thought it a story concerted between
Glumdalclitch and her father, who had taught me a set of words
to make me sell at a higher price. Upon this imagination, he put
several other questions to me, and still received rational answers, no
85
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
otherwise defective than by a foreign accent, and an imperfect
knowledge in the language, with some rustic phrases which I had
learned at the farmer's house, and did not suit the polite style of a
court.
His majesty sent for three great scholars who were then in their
weekly waiting, according to the custom of that country. These
gentlemen, after they had awhile examined my shape with much
nicety, were of different opinions concerning me. They all agreed
that I could not be produced according to the regular laws of nature,
because I was not framed with a capacity of preserving my life,
either by swiftness, or climbing of trees, or digging holes in the
earth. They observed by my teeth, which they viewed with great
exactness, that I was a carnivorous animal ; yet most quadrupeds
being an overmatch for me, and field mice, with some others, too
nimble, they could not imagine how I should be able to support
myself, unless I fed upon snails and other insects ; which they
offered, by many learned arguments, to evince that I could not
possibly do. They would not allow me to be a dwarf, because my
littleness was beyond all degrees of comparison ; for the queen's
favourite dwarf, the smallest ever known in that kingdom, was
near thirty feet high. After much debate, they concluded unani-
mously, that I was only relphnn scalcath, which is, interpreted
literally, lusus nature? ; a determination exactly agreeable to the
modern philosophy of Europe, whose professors, disdaining the old
evasion of occult causes, whereby the followers of Aristotle
endeavour in vain to disguise their ignorance, have invented this
wonderful solution of all difficulties, to the unspeakable advancement
of human knowledge.
After this decisive conclusion, I entreated to be heard a word or
two. I applied myself to the king, and assured his majesty, that I
came from a country which abounded with several millions of both
sexes, and of my own stature ; where the animals, trees, and houses,
were all in proportion, and where, by consequence, I might be as
able to defend myself, and to find sustenance, as any of his majesty's
subjects could do here ; which I took for a full answer to those
gentlemen's arguments. To this they only replied with a smile of
contempt, saying, that the farmer had instructed me very well in my
lesson. The king, who had a much better understanding, dismissing
his learned men, sent for the farmer, who by good fortune was not
yet gone out of town. Having, therefore, first examined him
86
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
privately, and then confronted him with me and the young girl, his
majesty began to think that what we told him might possibly be
true. 'He desired the queen to order that a particular care should be
taken of me ; and was of opinion that Glumdalclitch should still
continue in her office of tending me, because he observed we had a
great affection for each other. A convenient apartment was provided
for her at court ; she had a sort of governess appointed to take care
of her education, a maid to dress her, and two other servants for
menial offices ; but the care of me was wholly appropriated to
herself.
The queen commanded her own cabinet-maker to contrive a box,
that might serve me for a bed-chamber, after the model that
Glumdalclitch and I should agree upon. This man was a most
ingenious artist, and according to my directions, in three weeks,
finished for me a wooden chamber of sixteen feet square, and twelve
high, with sash-windows, a door, and two closets, like a London bed-
chamber. The board that made the ceiling, was to be lifted up and
down by two hinges, to put in a bed ready furnished by her
majesty's upholsterer, which Glumdalclitch took out every day to
air, made it with her own hands, and letting it down at night,
locked up the roof over me. A nice workman, who was famous for
little curiosities, undertook to make me two chairs, with backs and
frames, of a substance not unlike ivory, and two tables, with a
cabinet to put my things in. The room was quilted on all sides, as
well as the floor and the ceiling, to prevent any accident from the
carelessness of those who carried me, and to break the force of a jolt,
when I went in a coach. I desired a lock for my door, to prevent
rats and mice from coming in. The smith, after several attempts,
made the smallest that ever was seen among them, for I have known
a larger at the gate of a gentleman's house in England. I made
a shift to keep the key in a pocket of my own, fearing Glumdalclitch
might lose it. The queen likewise ordered the thinnest silks that
could be gotten, to make me clothes, not much thicker than an
English blanket, very cumbersome till I was accustomed to them.
They were after the fashion of the kingdom, partly resembling the
Persian, and partly the Chinese, and are a very grave and decent
habit.
The queen became so fond of my company, that she could not
dine without me. I had a table placed upon the same at which her
majesty eat, just at her elbow, and a chair to sit on. Glumdalclitch
8?
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
stood upon a stool on the floor, near my table, to assist and take care
of me. I had an entire set of silver dishes and plates, and other
necessaries, which, in proportion to those of the queen, were not
much bigger than what I have seen in a London toy-shop, for the
furniture of a baby-house : these my little nurse kept in her pocket
in a silver box, and gave me at meals as I wanted them, always
cleaning them herself.
No person dined with the queen but the two princesses royal,
the elder sixteen years old, and the younger at that time thirteen and
a month. Her majesty used to put a bit of meat upon one of my
dishes, out of which I carved for myself, and her diversion was to
see me eat in miniature ; for the queen (who had indeed but a weak
stomach) took up, at one mouthful, as much as a dozen English
farmers could eat at a meal, which to me was for some time a very
nauseous sight. She would craunch the wing of a lark, bones and
all, between her teeth, although it were nine times as large as that of
a full-grown turkey ; and put a bit of bread in her mouth, as big as
two twelvepenny loaves. She drank, out of a golden cup, above a
hogshead at a draught. Her knives were twice as long as a scythe,
set straight upon the handle. The spoons, forks, and other
instruments, were all in the same proportion. I remember when
Glumdalclitch carried me, out of curiosity, to see some of the tables
at court, where ten or a dozen of these enormous knives and forks
were lifted up together, I thought I had never till then beheld
so terrible a sight.
It is the custom that every Wednesday (which, as I have before
observed, is their sabbath) the king and queen, with the royal issue
of both sexes, dine together in the apartment of his majesty, to
whom I was now become a great favourite ; and at these times, my
little chair and table were placed at his left hand, before one of the
salt-cellars. This prince took a pleasure in conversing with me,
inquiring into the manners, religion, laws, government, and learning
of Europe ; wherein I gave him the best account I was able. His
apprehension was so clear, and his judgment so exact, that he made
very w r ise reflections and observations upon all I said. But I confess,
that after I had been a little too copious in talking of my own
beloved country, of our trade, and wars by sea and land, of our
schisms in religion, and parties in the state, the prejudices of his
education prevailed so far, that he could not forbear taking me up in
his right hand, and stroking me gently with the other, after a hearty
88
THE QUEEN BECAME FOND OF MY COMPANY
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
fit of laughing, asked me, whether I was a whig or tory ? Then
turning to his first minister, who waited behind him with a white
staff, near as tall as the mainmast of the Royal Sovereign, he
observed, how contemptible a thing was human grandeur, which
could be mimicked by such diminutive insects as I ; and yet, says he,
I dare engage these creatures have their titles and distinctions of
honour ; they contrive little nests and burrows, that they call houses
and cities; they make a figure in dress and equipage; they love,
they fight, they dispute, they cheat, they betray. And thus he
continued on, while my colour came and went several times, with
indignation, to hear our noble country, the mistress of arts and arms,
the scourge of France, the arbitress of Europe, the seat of virtue,
piety, honour, and truth, the pride and envy of the world, so
contemptuously treated.
But as I was not in a condition to resent injuries, so, upon
mature thoughts, I began to doubt whether I was injured or no.
For, after having been accustomed several months to the sight and
converse of this people, and observed every object upon which I cast
mine eyes to be of proportionable magnitude, the horror I had first
conceived from their bulk and aspect was so far worn off, that if I
had then beheld a company of English lords and ladies in their
finery and birth-day clothes, acting their several parts in the most
courtly manner of strutting, and bowing, and prating, to say the
truth, I should have been strongly tempted to laugh as much at
them, as the king and his grandees did at me. Neither, indeed,
could I forbear smiling at myself, when the queen used to place
me upon her hand towards a looking-glass, by which both our
persons appeared before me in full view together ; and there could
nothing be more ridiculous than the comparison ; so that I really
began to imagine myself dwindled many degrees below my usual
size.
Nothing angered and mortified me so much as the queen's
dwarf ; who, being of the lowest stature that was ever in that
country (for I verily think he was not full thirty feet high), became
insolent at seeing a creature so much beneath him, that he would
always affect to swagger and look big as he passed by me in the
queen's ante-chamber, while I was standing on some table talking
with the lords or ladies of the court, and he seldom failed of
a small word or two upon my littleness ; against which I could
90
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
only revenge myself by calling him brother, challenging him to
wrestle, and such repartees as are usual in the mouths of court
pages.
One day at dinner, this malicious little cub was so nettled with
something I had said to him, that, raising himself upon the frame of
her majesty's chair, he took me up by the middle, as I was sitting
down, not thinking any harm, and let me drop into a large silver
bowl of cream, and than ran away as fast as he could. I fell over
head and ears, and if I had not been a good swimmer it might have
gone very hard with me ; for Glumdalclitch in that instant happened
to be at the other end of the room, and the queen was in such
a fright that she wanted presence of mind to assist me. But my
little nurse ran to my relief, and took me out, after I had swallowed
above a quart of cream. I was put to bed ; however, I received no
other damage than the loss of a suit of clothes, which was utterly
spoiled. The dwarf was soundly whipped, and as a farther punish-
ment, forced to drink up the bowl of cream into which he had
thrown me : neither was he ever restored to favour ; for soon after
the queen bestowed him to a lady of high quality, so that I saw
him no more, to my very great satisfaction : for I could not tell to
what extremity such a malicious urchin might have carried his
resentment.
He had before served me a scurvy trick, which set the queen
a-laughing, although at the same time she was heartily vexed, and
would have immediately cashiered him, if I had not been so
generous as to intercede. Her majesty had taken a marrow-bone
upon her plate, and after knocking out the marrow, placed the bone
again in the dish erect, as it stood before ; the dwarf watching his
opportunity, while Glumdalclitch was gone to the sideboard,
mounted upon the stool she stood on to take care of me at meals,
took me up in both hands, and squeezing my legs together, wedged
them into the marrow-bone above my waist, where I stuck for some
time, and made a very ridiculous figure. I believe it was near
a minute before any one knew what was become of me ; for I
thought it below me to cry out. But, as princes seldom get their
meat hot, my legs were not scalded, only my stockings and breeches
in a sad condition. The dwarf, at my entreaty, had no other
punishment than a sound whipping.
I was frequently rallied by the queen upon account of my fear-
9 1
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
fulness ; and she used to ask me whether the people of my country
were as great cowards as myself ? The occasion was this : the
kingdom is much pestered with flies in summer ; and these
odious insects, each of them as big as a Dunstable lark, hardly
gave me any rest while I sat at dinner, with their continual
humming and buzzing about mine ears. Sometimes they would
fix upon my nose or forehead, where they stung me to the quick,
smelling very offensively ; and I could easily trace that viscous matter
which, our naturalists tell
us, enables those creatures to
walk with their feet upwards
upon a ceiling. I had much
ado to defend myself against
these detestable animals, and
could not forbear starting
when they came on my face.
It was the common practice of
the dwarf to catch a number
of these insects in his hand,
as schoolboys do among us,
and let them out suddenly
under my nose, on purpose to
frighten me, and divert the
queen. My remedy was to
cut them in pieces with my
knife, as they flew in the air,
wherein my dexterity was much admired.
I remember one morning, when Glumdalclitch had set me in my
box upon a window, as she usually did in fair days to give me
air (for I durst not venture to let the box be hung on a nail out of
the window, as we do with cages in England), after I had lifted up
one of my sashes, and sat down at my table to eat a piece of sweet
cake for my breakfast, above twenty wasps, allured by the smell,
came flying into the room, humming louder than the drones of as
many bagpipes. Some of them seized my cake, and carried it piece-
meal away ; others flew about my head and face, confounding me
with the noise, and putting me in the utmost terror of their stings.
However, I had the courage to rise and draw my hanger, and attack
them in the air. I dispatched four of them, but the rest got away,
and I presently shut my window. These creatures were as large as
92
I DISPATCHED FOUR OF THEM
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
partridges : I took out their stings, found them an inch and a half
long, and as sharp as needles. I carefully preserved them all ; and
having since shown them, with some other curiosities in several
parts of Europe ; upon my return to England I gave three of them
to Gresham College, and kept the fourth for myself.
93
LORBRULGRUD. THE METROPOLIS
CHAPTER IV
NOW intend to give the reader a short description
of this country, as far as I travelled in it, which was
not above two thousand miles round Lorbrulgrud, the
metropolis. For the queen, whom I always attended,
never went farther when she accompanied the king
in his progresses, and there stayed till his majesty returned from
viewing his frontiers. The whole extent of this prince's dominions
reaches about six thousand miles in length, and from three to five in
breadth. From whence I cannot but conclude, that our geographers
of Europe are in a great error, by supposing nothing but sea
between Japan and California ; for it was ever my opinion, that
there must be a balance of earth to counterpoise the great continent
of Tartary ; and therefore they ought to correct their maps
and charts, by joining this vast tract of land to the north-west
parts of America, wherein I shall be ready to lend them my
assistance.
The kingdom is a peninsula, terminated to the north-east by a
ridge of mountains thirty miles high, which are altogether impassable,
by reason of the volcanoes upon the tops : neither do the most
learned know what sort of mortals inhabit beyond those mountains,
or whether they be inhabited at all. On the three other sides, it is
bounded by the ocean. There is not one seaport in the whole
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GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
kingdom ; and those parts of the coasts into which the rivers issue,
are so full of pointed rocks, and the sea generally so rough, that
there is no venturing with the smallest of their boats; so that these
people are wholly excluded from any commerce with the rest of the
world. But the large rivers are full of vessels, and abound with
excellent fish : for they seldom get any from the sea, because the
sea-fish are of the same size with those in Europe, and consequently,
not worth catching ; whereby it is manifest, that nature, in the
production of plants and animals of so extraordinary a bulk, is wholly
confined to this continent, of which I leave the reasons to be deter-
mined by philosophers. However, now and then they take a whale
that happens to be dashed against the rocks, which the common
people feed on heartily. These whales I have known so large, that
a man could hardly carry one upon his shoulders ; and sometimes for
curiosity they are brought in hampers to Lorbrulgrud : I saw one of
them in a dish at the king's table, which passed for a rarity, but I
did not observe he was fond of it ; for I think, indeed, the bigness
disgusted him, although I have seen one somewhat larger in
Greenland.
The country is well inhabited, for it contains fifty-one cities,
near a hundred walled towns, and a great number of villages. To
satisfy my curious reader, it may be sufficient to describe Lorbrulgrud.
This city stands upon almost two equal parts, on each side the river
that passes through. It contains above eighty thousand houses, and
about six hundred thousand inhabitants. It is in length three glon-
glungs (which make about fifty-four English miles), and two and a
half in breadth ; as I measured it myself in the royal map made by
the king's order, which was laid on the ground on purpose for me,
and extended a hundred feet : I paced the diameter and circumference
several times barefoot, and computing by the scale, measured it
pretty exactly.
The king's palace is no regular edifice, but a heap of buildings
about seven miles round : the chief rooms are generally two hundred
and forty feet high, and broad and long in proportion. A coach was
allowed to Glumdalclitch and me, wherein her governess frequently
took her out to see the town, or go among the shops ; and I was
always of the party, carried in my box ; although the girl, at my own
desire, would often take me out, and hold me in her hand, that I
might more conveniently view the houses and the people, as we
passed along the streets. I reckoned our coach to be a square of
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GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
Westminster Hall, but not altogether so high : however, I cannot
be very exact.
Beside the large box in which I was usually carried, the queen
ordered a smaller one to be made for me, of about twelve feet square,
and ten high, for the convenience of travelling ; because the other
was somewhat too large for Glumdalclitch's lap, and cumbersome in
the coach : it was made by the same artist, whom I directed in the
whole contrivance. This travelling closet was an exact square, with
a window in the middle of three of the squares, and each window
was latticed with iron wire on the outside, to prevent accidents in
long journeys. On the fourth side, which had no window, two
strong staples were fixed, through which the person that carried me,
when I had a mind to be on horseback, put in a leathern belt, and
buckled it about his waist. This was always the office of some grave
trusty servant, in whom I could confide, whether I attended the king
and queen in their progresses, or were disposed to see the gardens, or
pay a visit to some great lady or minister of state in the court, when
Glumdalclitch happened to be out of order ; for I soon began to be
known and esteemed among the greatest officers, I suppose more
upon account of their majesties' favour, than any merit of my own.
In journeys, when I was weary of the coach, a servant on horseback
would buckle my box, and place it on a cushion before him ; and
there I had a full prospect of the country on three sides, from my
three windows. I had in this closet a field-bed, and a hammock
hung from the ceiling, two chairs and a table, neatly screwed to the
floor, to prevent being tossed about by the agitation of the horse or
the coach. And having been long used to sea voyages, these motions,
although sometimes very violent, did not much discompose me.
Whenever I had a mind to see the town, it was always in my
travelling closet : which Glumdalclitch held in her lap in a kind of
open sedan, after the fashion of the country, borne by four men, and
attended by two others in the queen's livery. The people, who had
often heard of me, were very curious to crowd about the sedan, and
the girl was complaisant enough to make the bearers stop, and to
take me in her hand that I might be more conveniently seen.
I was very desirous to see the chief temple, and particularly the
tower belonging to it, which is reckoned the highest in the kingdom.
Accordingly, one day my nurse carried me thither, but I may truly
say I came back disappointed ; for the height is not above three
thousand feet, and reckoning from the ground to the highest pinnacle
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GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
top ; which, allowing for the difference between the size of those
people and us in Europe, is no great matter for admiration, nor at
all equal in proportion (if I rightly remember) to Salisbury steeple.
But, not to detract from a nation, to which during my life I shall
acknowledge myself extremely obliged, it must be allowed that what-
ever this famous tower wants in height, is amply made up in beauty
and strength ; for the walls are near a hundred feet thick, built of
hewn stone, whereof each is about forty feet square, and adorned on
all sides with statues of gods and emperors, cut in marble, larger than
the life, placed in their several niches. I measured a little finger
which had fallen down from one of these statues, and lay unperceived
among some rubbish, and found it exactly four feet and an inch in
length. Glumdalclitch wrapped it up in a handkerchief, and carried
it home in her pocket, to keep among other trinkets, of which the
girl was very fond, as children at her age usually are.
The king's kitchen is indeed a noble building, vaulted at top, and
about six hundred feet high. The great oven is not so wide, by ten
paces, as the cupola at St. Paul's ; for I measured the latter on
purpose, after my return. But if I should describe the kitchen grate,
the prodigious pots and kettles, the joints of meat turning on the spits,
with many other particulars, perhaps I should be hardly believed ;
at least a severe critic would be apt to think I enlarged a little, as
travellers are often suspected to do. To avoid which censure, I fear
I have run too much into the other extreme ; and that if this treatise
should happen to be translated into the language of Brobdingnag
(which is the general name of that kingdom), and transmitted thither,
the king and his people would have reason to complain that I had
done them an injury, by a false and diminutive representation.
His majesty seldom keeps above six hundred horses in his stables ;
they are generally from fifty-four to sixty feet high. But, when he
goes abroad on solemn days, he is attended, for state, by a militia
guard of five hundred horse, which, indeed, I thought was the most
splendid sight that could be ever beheld, till I saw part of his army
in battalia, whereof I shall find another occasion to speak.
j^~ WT ^^r wr ^^ ?^r j^ ^^r
97
o
SHOOK IT DIRECTLY OVER MY HEAD
CHAPTER V
SHOULD have lived happy enough in that country,
if my littleness had not exposed me to several ridiculous
and troublesome accidents : some of which I shall
venture to relate. Glumdalclitch often carried me into
the gardens of the court in my smaller box, and would
sometimes take me out of it, and hold me in her hand, or set
me down to walk. I remember, before the dwarf left the queen,
he followed us one day into those gardens, and my nurse having
set me down, he and I being close together, near some dwarf
apple-trees, I must need show my wit, by a silly allusion between
him and the trees, which happens to hold in their language as it
does in ours. Whereupon the malicious rogue, watching his oppor-
tunity, when I was walking under one of them, shook it directly over
my head, by which a dozen apples, each of them near as large as a
Bristol barrel, came tumbling about my ears ; one of them hit me on
the back as I chanced to stoop, and knocked me down flat on my
face ; but I received no other hurt, and the dwarf was pardoned at
my desire, because I had given the provocation.
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GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
Another day, Glumdalclitch left me on a smooth grass-plot to
divert myself, while she walked some distance with her governess.
In the meantime, there suddenly fell such a violent shower of hail,
that I was immediately, by the force of it, struck to the ground : and
when I was down, the hailstones gave me such cruel bangs all over
the body, as if I had been pelted with tennis-balls : however, I made
a shift to creep on all four, and shelter myself, by lying flat on my
face, on the lee-side of a border of lemon-thyme ; but so bruised from
head to foot, that I could not go abroad in ten days. Neither is that
at all to be wondered at, because nature, in that country, observing
the same proportion through all her operations, a hailstone is near
eighteen hundred times as large as one in Europe ; which I can
assert upon experience, having been so curious to weigh and measure
them.
But a more dangerous accident happened to me in the same
garden, when my little nurse, believing she had put me in a secure
place, which I often entreated her to do, that I might enjoy my
own thoughts, and having left my box at home, to avoid the trouble
of carrying it, went to another part of the gardens with her governess
and some ladies of her acquaintance. While she was absent and out
of hearing, a small white spaniel belonging to one of the chief
gardeners, having got by accident into the garden, happened to
range near the place where I lay : the dog, following the scent,
came directly up, and taking me in his mouth, ran straight to his
master wagging his tail, and set me gently on the ground. By good
fortune he had been so well taught, that I was carried between his
teeth without the least hurt, or even tearing my clothes. But the
poor gardener, who knew me well, and had a great kindness for me,
was in a terrible fright : he gently took me up in both his hands,
and asked me how I did ; but I was so amazed and out of breath,
that I could not speak a word. In a few minutes I came to myself,
and he carried me safe to my little nurse, who, by this time, had
returned to the place where she left me, and was in cruel agonies
when I did not appear, nor answer when she called. She severely
reprimanded the gardener on account of his dog. But the thing
was hushed up, and never known at court, for the girl was afraid of
the queen's anger ; and truly, as to myself, I thought it would not
be for my reputation that such a story should go about.
This accident absolutely determined Glumdalclitch never to
trust me abroad for the future out of sight. I had been long afraid
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GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
of this resolution, and therefore concealed from her some little
unlucky adventures, that happened in those times when I was left
by myself. Once a kite, hovering over the garden, made a stoop at
me, and if I had not resolutely drawn my hanger, and run under a
thick espalier he would have certainly carried me away in his talons.
Another time, walking to the top of a fresh molehill, I fell to my
neck in the hole, through which that animal had cast up the earth,
and coined some lie, not worth remembering, to excuse myself for
spoiling my clothes. I likewise broke my right shin against the
shell of a snail, which I hap-
pened to stumble over, as I
was walking alone and think-
ing on poor England.
I cannot tell whether I
were more pleased or morti-
fied to observe, in those soli-
tary walks, that the smaller
birds did not appear to be at
all afraid of me, but would
hop about within a yard dis-
tance, looking for worms and
other food, with as much in-
difference and security as if
no creature at all were near
them. I remember, a thrush
THE QUEEN'S DWARF h ac [ tne confidence to snatch
out of my hand, with his bill,
a piece of cake that Glumdalclitch had just given me for my break-
fast. When I attempted to catch any of these birds, they would
boldly turn against me, endeavouring to pick my fingers, which I
durst not venture within their reach ; and then they would turn
back unconcerned, to hunt for worms or snails, as they did before.
But one day, I took a thick cudgel, and threw it with all my strength
so luckily, at a linnet, that I knocked him down, and seizing him
by the neck with both my hands, ran with him in triumph to my
nurse. However, the bird, who had only been stunned, recovering
himself, gave me so many boxes with his wings, on both sides of
my head and body, though I held him at arm's-length, and was out
of the reach of his claws, that I was twenty times thinking to let
him go. But I was soon relieved by one of our servants, who
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GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
wrung off the bird's neck, and I had him next day for dinner, by
the queen's command. The linnet, as near as I can remember,
seemed to be somewhat larger than an English swan.
One day, a young gentleman, who was nephew to my nurse's
governess, came and pressed them both to see an execution. It was
of a man who had murdered one of that gentleman's intimate
acquaintance. Glumdalclitch was prevailed on to be of the com-
pany, very much against her inclination, for she was naturally
tender-hearted : and as for myself, although I abhorred such kind
of spectacles, yet my curiosity tempted me to see something that I
thought must be extraordinary. The malefactor was fixed in a
chair upon a scaffold erected for the purpose, and his head cut off
at a blow, with a sword of about forty feet long. The veins and
arteries spouted up such a prodigious quantity of blood, and so high
in the air, that the great jet d'eau at Versailles was not equal for the
time it lasted ; and the head, when it fell on the scaffold floor, gave
such a bounce as made me start, although I were at least half an
English mile distant.
The queen, who often used to hear me talk of my sea-voyages,
and took all occasions to divert me when I was melancholy, asked
me whether I understood how to handle a sail or an oar, and whether
a little exercise of rowing might not be convenient for my health ?
I answered that I understood both very well : for although my
proper employment had been to be surgeon or doctor to the ship,
yet often, upon a pinch, I was forced to work like a common
mariner. But I could not see how this could be done in their
country, where the smallest wherry was equal to a first-rate man-of-
war among us ; and such a boat as I could manage would never
live in any of their rivers. Her majesty said, if I would contrive a
boat, her own joiner should make it, and she would provide a place
for me to sail in. The fellow was an ingenious workman, and by
my instructions, in ten days, finished a pleasure boat, with all its
tackling, able conveniently to hold eight Europeans.
When it was finished, the queen was so delighted, that she ran
with it in her lap to the king, who ordered it to be put in a cistern
full of water, with me in it, by way of trial ; where I could not
manage my two sculls, or little oars, for want of room. But the
queen had before contrived another project. She ordered the joiner
to make a wooden trough of three hundred feet long, fifty broad,
and eight deep ; which being well pitched to prevent leaking, was
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GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
placed on the floor along the wall, in an outer room of the palace.
It had a cock near the bottom, to let out the water when it began
to grow stale ; and two servants could easily fill it in half an hour.
Here I often used to row for my own diversion, as well as that of
the queen and her ladies, who thought themselves well entertained
with my skill and agility. Sometimes I would put up my sail, and
then my business was only to steer, while the ladies gave me a gale
with their fans ; and when they were weary, some of the pages
would blow my sail forward with their breath, while I showed my
art by steering starboard or larboard as I pleased. When I had
done, Glumdalclitch always carried back my boat into her closet,
and hung it on a nail to dry.
In this exercise I once met an accident, which had like to have
cost me my life : for, one of the pages having put my boat into
the trough, the governess who attended Glumdalclitch very offici-
ously lifted me up, to place me in the boat ; but I happened to
slip through her fingers, and should infallibly have fallen down forty
feet upon the floor, if by the luckiest chance in the world, I had
not been stopped by a corking-pin that stuck in the good gentle-
woman's stomacher ; the head of the pin passed between my shirt
and the waistband of my breeches, and thus I was held by the
middle in the air, till Glumdalclitch ran to my relief.
Another time, one of the servants, whose office it was to fill my
trough every third day with fresh water, was so careless to let a
huge frog (not perceiving it) slip out of his pail. The frog lay
concealed till I was put into my boat, but then, seeing a resting-
place, climed up, and made it lean so much on one side, that I was
forced to balance it with all my weight on the other to prevent
overturning. When the frog was got in, it hopped at once half
the length of the boat, and then over my head, backward and
forward, daubing my face and clothes with its odious slime. The
largeness of its features made it appear the most deformed animal
that can be conceived. However, I desired Glumdalclitch to let
me deal with it alone. I banged it a good while with one of my
sculls, and at last forced it to leap out of the boat.
But the greatest danger I ever underwent in that kingdom, was
from a monkey, who belonged to one of the clerks of the kitchen.
Glumdalclitch had locked me up in her closet, while she went
somewhere upon business, or a visit. The weather being very
warm, the closet window was left open, as well as the windows
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GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
and the door of my bigger box, in which I usually lived, because
of its largeness and conveniency. As I sat quietly meditating at
my table, I heard something bounce in at the closet window, and
skip about from one side to the other ; whereat, although I were
much alarmed, yet I ventured to look out, but not stirring from
my seat ; and then I saw this frolicsome animal frisking and leaping
up and down, till at last he came to my box, which he seemed to
view with great pleasure and curiosity, peeping in at the door and
every window. I retreated to the further corner of my room, or
box ; but the monkey looking in at every side, put me into such
a fright, that I wanted presence of mind to conceal myself under
the bed, as I might easily have done.
After some time spent in peeping, grinning, and chattering, he
at last espied me ; and reaching one of his paws in at the door,
as a cat does when she plays with a mouse, although I often shifted
place to avoid him, he at length caught hold of the lappet of my
coat (which being made of that country cloth, was very thick and
strong), and dragged me out. He took me up in his right fore-foot,
and held me as a nurse does a child she is going to suckle, just as
I have seen the same sort of creature do with a kitten in Europe :
and when I offered to struggle, he squeezed me so hard, that I
thought it more prudent to submit. I have good reason to
believe that he took me for a young one of his own species, by his
often stroking my face very gently with his other paw. In these
diversions he was interrupted by a noise at the closet door, as if
somebody were opening it ; whereupon he suddenly leaped up to
the window, at which he had come in, and thence upon the leads
and gutters, walking upon three legs, and holding me in the fourth,
till he clambered up to a roof that was next to ours. I heard
Glumdalclitch give a shriek at the moment he was carrying me
out. The poor girl was almost distracted ; that quarter of the
palace was all in an uproar ; the servants ran for ladders ; the
monkey was seen by hundreds in the court, sitting upon the ridge
of a building, holding me like a baby in one of his fore paws, and
feeding me with the other, by cramming into my mouth some
victuals he had squeezed out of the bag on one side of his chaps,
and patting me when I would not eat ; whereat many of the rabble
below could not forbear laughing ; neither do I think they justly
ought to be blamed, for, without question, the sight was ridiculous
enough to everybody but myself. Some of the people threw up
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GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
stones, hoping to drive the monkey down ; but this was strictly
forbidden, or else, very probably, my brains had been dashed out.
The ladders were now applied, and mounted by several men ;
which the monkey observing, and finding himself almost encom-
passed, not being able to make speed enough with his three legs,
let me drop on a ridge tile, and made his escape. Here I sat for
some time, three hundred yards from the ground, expecting every
moment to be blown down by the wind, or to fall by my own
giddiness, and come tumbling over and over, from the ridge to the
eaves : but an honest lad, one of my nurse's footmen, climbed up,
and putting me into his breeches-pocket, brought me down safe.
I was almost choked with the filthy stuff the monkey had
crammed down my throat ; but my dear little nurse picked it out
of my mouth with a small needle, and then I fell a vomiting, which
gave me great relief. Yet I was so weak and bruised in the sides
with the squeezes given me by this odious animal, that I was forced
to keep my bed a fortnight. The king, queen, and all the court,
sent every day to enquire after my health ; and her majesty made
me several visits during my sickness. The monkey was killed, and
an order made that no such animal should be kept about the palace.
When I attended the king after my recovery, to return him
thanks for his favours, he was pleased to rally me a good deal upon
this adventure. He asked me, what my thoughts and my specu-
lations were while I lay in the monkey's paw ? how I liked the
victuals he gave me ? his manner of feeding ? and whether the
fresh air on the roof had sharpened my stomach ? He desired to
know what I would have done upon such an occasion in my own
country ? I told his majesty, that in Europe we had no monkeys
except such as were brought for curiosities from other places, and
so small that I could deal with a dozen of them together, if they
presumed to attack me. And as for that monstrous animal, with
whom I was so lately engaged (it was indeed as large as an elephant),
if my fears had suffered me to think so far as to make use of my
hanger (looking fiercely, and clapping my hand upon my hilt, as I
spoke), when he poked his paw into my chamber, perhaps I should
have given him such a wound, as would have made him glad to
withdraw it, with more haste than he put it in. This I delivered
in a firm tone, like a person who was jealous lest his honour should
be called in question. However, my speech produced nothing else
besides a loud laughter, which all the respect due to his majesty
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THE LADDERS WERE NOW APPLIED
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
from these about him could not make them contain. This made
me reflect, how vain an attempt it is for a man to endeavour doing
himself honour among those who are out of all degree of equality
or comparison with him. And yet I have seen the moral of my
own behaviour very frequent in England since my return ; where
a little contemptible varlet, without the least title to birth, person,
wit, or common sense, shall presume to look with importance, and
put himself upon a foot with the greatest persons of the kingdom.
1 06
HIS MAJESTY WAS ONLY SHAVED TWICE A-WEEK
CHAPTER VI
USED to attend the king's levee once or twice a week,
and had often seen him under the barber's hand, which
indeed was at first very terrible to behold : for the razor
was almost twice as long as an ordinary scythe. His
majesty, according to the custom of the country, was only
shaved twice a-week. I once prevailed on the barber to give
me some of the suds or lather, out of which I picked forty or
fifty of the strongest stumps of hair. I then took a piece of fine
wood, and cut it like the back of a comb, making several holes
in it at equal distance with as small a needle as I could get from
Glumdalclitch. I fixed in the stumps so artificially, scraping and
sloping them with my knife towards the points, that I made a very
tolerable comb ; which was a seasonable supply, my own being
so much broken in the teeth, that it was almost useless : neither
did I know any artist in that country so nice and exact, as would
undertake to make me another.
And this puts me in mind of an amusement wherein I spent
many of my leisure hours. I desired the queen's woman to save for
me the combings of her majesty's hair, whereof in time I got a good
quantity ; and consulting with my friend the cabinet-maker, who
had received general orders to do little jobs for me, I directed him to
make two chair frames, no larger than those I had in my box, and
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GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
then to bore little holes with a fine awl round those parts where
I designed the backs and seats : through these holes I wove the
strongest hairs I could pick out, just after the manner of cane-chairs
in England. When they were finished, I made a present of them to
her majesty, who kept them in her cabinet, and used to show them
for curiosities, as indeed they were the wonder of every one that
beheld them. The queen would have had me sit upon one of these
chairs, but I absolutely refused to obey her, protesting I would rather
die a thousand deaths than sit on those precious hairs that once adorned
her majesty's head. Of these hairs (as I had always a mechanical
genius) I likewise made a neat little purse, about five feet long, with
her majesty's name deciphered in gold letters, which I gave to
Glumdalclitch, by the queen's consent. To say the truth it was
more for show than use, being not of strength to bear the weight of
the larger coins, and therefore she kept nothing in it, but some little
toys that girls are fond of.
The king, who delighted in music, had frequent concerts at
court, to which I was sometimes carried, and set in my box on a
table to hear them ; but the noise was so great that I could hardly
distinguish the tunes. I am confident that all the drums and
trumpets of a royal army, beating and sounding together just at your
ears, could not equal it. My practice was to have my box removed
from the place where the performers sat, as far as I could, then to
shut the doors and windows of it, and draw the window curtains,
after which I found their music not disagreeable.
I had learnt in my youth to play a little upon the spinet.
Glumdalclitch kept one in her chamber, and a master attended twice
a-week to teach her : I called it a spinet, because it somewhat
resembled that instrument, and was played upon in the same manner.
A fancy came into my head that I would entertain the king and
queen with an English tune upon this instrument. But this
appeared extremely difficult : for the spinet was near sixty feet long,
each key being almost a foot wide, so that with my arms extended I
could not reach to above five keys, and to press them down required
a good smart stroke with my fist, which would be too great a labour,
and to no purpose.
The method I contrived was this : I prepared two round sticks,
about the bigness of common cudgels ; they were thicker at one end
than the other, and I covered the thicker ends with a piece of a
mouse's skin, that by rapping on them I might neither damage the
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GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
tops of the keys nor interrupt the sound. Before the spinet a bench
was placed, about four feet below the keys, and I was put upon the
bench. I ran sideling upon it, that way and this, as fast as I could,
banging the proper keys with my two sticks, and made a shift to play
a jig to the great satisfaction of both their majesties : but it was the
most violent exercise I ever underwent ; and yet I could not strike
above sixteen keys, nor, consequently, play the bass and treble
I RAN SIDELING UPON IT
together, as other artists do ; which was a great disadvantage to my
performance.
The king, who, as I before observed, was a prince of excellent
understanding, would frequently order that I should be brought in my
box, and set upon the table in his closet ; he would then command
me to bring one of my chairs out of the box, and sit down within
three yards' distance, upon the top of the cabinet, which brought me
almost to a level with his face. In this manner I had several
conversations with him. I one day took the freedom to tell his
majesty that the contempt he discovered towards Europe, and the
rest of the world, did not seem answerable to these excellent
109
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
qualities of mind that he was master of : that reason did not extend
itself with the bulk of the body : on the contrary, we observed
in our country, that the tallest persons were usually the least
provided with it. That among other animals, bees and ants had
the reputation of more industry, art, and sagacity, than many of the
larger kinds ; and that, as inconsiderable as he took me to be, I
hoped I might live to do his majesty some signal service. The
king heard me with attention, and began to conceive a much better
opinion of me than he had ever before. He desired I would give
him as exact an account of the government of England as I possibly
could ; because, as fond as princes commonly are of their own
customs (for so he conjectured of other monarchs by my former
discourses), he should be glad to hear of anything that might deserve
imitation.
Imagine with thyself, courteous reader, how often I then wished
for the tongue of Demosthenes or Cicero, that might have enabled
me to celebrate the praise of my own dear native country, in a style
equal to its merits and felicity.
I began my discourse by informing his majesty, that our
dominions consisted of two islands, which comprised three mighty
kingdoms under one sovereign, besides our plantations in America.
I dwelt long upon the fertility of our soil, and the temperature of
our climate. I then spoke at large upon the constitution of an
English parliament ; partly made up of an illustrious body, called the
House of Peers ; persons of the noblest blood, and of the most ancient
and ample patrimonies. I described that extraordinary care always
taken of their education in arts and arms, to qualify them for being
counsellors both to the king and kingdom ; to have a share in the
legislature ; to be members of the highest court of judicature, from
whence there can be no appeal ; and to be champions always ready
for the defence of their prince and country, by their valour, conduct,
and fidelity. That these were the ornament and bulwark of the
kingdom, worthy followers of their most renowned ancestors, whose
honour had been the reward of their virtue, from which their
posterity were never once known to degenerate. To these were
joined several holy persons, as part of that assembly, under the title
of bishops, whose peculiar business it is to take care of religion, and
of those who instruct the people therein. These were searched and
sought out through the whole nation, by the prince and his wisest
counsellors, among such of the priesthood as were most deservedly
1 10
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
distinguished by the sanctity of their lives, and the depth of their
erudition, who were indeed the spiritual fathers of the clergy and
the people.
That the other part of the parliament consisted of an assembly,
called the House of Commons, who were all principal gentlemen,
freely picked and culled out by the people themselves, for their great
abilities and love of their country, to represent the wisdom of the
whole nation. And that these two bodies made up the most august
assembly in Europe, to whom, in conjunction with the prince, the
whole legislature is committed.
I then descended to the courts of justice ; over which the judges,
those venerable sages and interpreters of the law, presided, for deter-
mining the disputed rights and properties of men, as well as for the
punishment of vice and protection of innocence. I mentioned the
prudent management of our treasury; the valour and achievements
of our forces by sea and land. I computed the number of our
people, by reckoning how many millions there might be of each
religious sect, or political party among us. I did not omit even our
sports and pastimes, or any other particular which I thought might
redound to the honour of my country. And I finished all with a
brief historical account of affairs and events in England for about a
hundred years past.
This conversation was not ended under five audiences, each of
several hours ; and the king heard the whole with great attention,
frequently taking notes of what I spoke, as well as memorandums of
all questions he intended to ask me.
When I had put an end to these long discourses, his majesty, in
a sixth audience, consulting his notes, proposed many doubts, queries,
and objections, upon every article. He asked what methods were
used to cultivate the minds and bodies of our young nobility, and in
what kind of business they commonly spent the first and teachable
part of their lives ? What course was taken to supply that assembly,
when any noble family became extinct ? What qualifications were
necessary in those who are to be created new lords : whether the
humour of the prince, a sum of money to a court lady or a prime
minister, or a design of strengthening a party opposite to the public
interest, ever happened to be motives in those advancements ? What
share of knowledge these lords had in the laws of their country, and
how they came by it, so as to enable them to decide the properties of
their fellow-subjects in the last resort ? Whether they were always
1 1 1
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
so free from avarice, partialities, or want, that a bribe, or some other
sinister view, could have no place among them ? Whether those
holy lords I spoke of were always promoted to that rank upon
account of their knowledge in religious matters, and the sanctity
of their lives ; had never been compilers with the times, while they
were common priests ; or slavish prostitute chaplains to some noble-
man, whose opinions they continued servilely to follow after they
were admitted into that assembly ?
He then desired to know what arts were practised in electing
those whom I called commoners ; whether a stranger with a strong
purse might not influence the vulgar voters to choose him before
their own landlord, or the most considerable gentleman in the neigh-
bourhood ? How it came to pass that people were so violently bent
upon getting into this assembly, which I allowed to be a great trouble
and expense, often to the ruin of their familes, without any salary
or pension : because this appeared such an exalted strain of virtue
and public spirit, that his majesty seemed to doubt it might possibly
not be always sincere ? And he desired to know whether such
zealous gentlemen could have any views of refunding themselves for
the charges and trouble they were at, by sacrificing the public good
to the designs of a weak and vicious prince, in conjunction with a
corrupted ministry ? He multiplied his questions, and sifted me
thoroughly upon every part of this head, proposing numberless
inquiries and objections, which I think it not prudent or convenient
to repeat.
Upon what I said in relation to our courts of justice his majesty
desired to be satisfied in several points : and this I was the better
able to do, having been formerly almost ruined by a long suit in
chancery, which was decreed for me with costs. He asked, what
time was usually spent in determining between right and wrong, and
what degree of expense ? Whether advocates and orators had liberty
to plead in causes manifestly known to be unjust, vexatious, or
oppressive ? Whether party, in religion or politics, were observed
to be of any weight in the scale of justice ? Whether those pleading
orators were persons educated in the general knowledge of equity, or
only in provincial, national, and other local customs ? Whether
they or their judges had any part in penning those laws, which they
assumed the liberty of interpreting and glossing upon at their
pleasure ? Whether they had ever, at different times, pleaded for
and against the same cause, and cited precedents to prove contrary
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GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
opinions ? Whether they were a rich or a poor corporation ?
Whether they received any pecuniary reward for pleading, or deliver-
ing their opinions ? And particularly, whether they were ever
admitted as members in the lower senate ?
He fell next upon the management of our treasury ; and said, he
thought my memory had failed me, because I computed our taxes at
about five or six millions a-year, and when I came to mention the
issues, he found they sometimes amounted to more than double ; for
the notes he had taken were very particular in this point, because he
hoped, as he told me, that the knowledge of our conduct might be
useful to him, and he could not be deceived in his calculations. But,
if what I told him were true, he was still at a loss how a kingdom
could run out of its estate, like a private person. He asked me who
were our creditors ; and where we found money to pay them ? He
wondered to hear me talk of such chargeable and expensive wars ;
that certainly we must be a quarrelsome people, or live among very
bad neighbours, and that our generals must needs be richer than our
kings ? He asked what business we had out of our own islands,
unless upon the score of trade or treaty, or to defend the coasts with
our fleet ? Above all, he was amazed to hear me talk of a mercenary
standing army, in the midst of peace, and among a free people. He
said, if we were governed by our own consent in the persons of our
representatives, he could not imagine of whom we were afraid, or
against whom we were to fight ; and would hear my opinion,
whether a private man's house might not better be defended by him-
self, his children, and family, than by half a dozen rascals, picked up
at a venture in the streets for small wages, who might get a hundred
times more by cutting their throats ?
He laughed at my odd kind of arithmetic (as he was pleased to
call it), in reckoning the numbers of our people by a computation
drawn from the several sects among us in religion and politics. He
said he knew no reason, why those who entertain opinions prejudicial
to the public, should be obliged to change, or should not be obliged
to conceal them. And as it was tyranny in any government to
require the first, so it was weakness not to enforce the second : for
a man may be allowed to keep poisons in his closet, but not to vend
them about for cordials.
He observed, that among the diversions of our nobility and
gentry, I had mentioned gaming. He desired to know at what age
this entertainment was usually taken up, and when it was laid down ;
Q 113
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
how much of their time it employed ; whether it ever went so
high as to affect their fortunes ; whether mean, vicious people, by
their dexterity in that art, might not arrive at great riches, and
sometimes keep our very nobles in dependence, as well as habituate
them to vile companions, wholly take from them the improvement
of their minds, and force them, by the losses they received, to learn
and practise that infamous dexterity upon others ?
He was perfectly astonished with the historical account I gave
him of our affairs during the last century ; protesting it was only
a heap of conspiracies, rebellions, murders, massacres, revolutions,
banishments, the very worst effects that avarice, faction, hypocrisy,
perfidiousness, cruelty, rage, madness, hatred, envy, lust, malice, and
ambition, could produce.
His majesty, in another audience, was at the pains to recapitulate
the sum of all I had spoken ; compared the questions he made with
the answers I had given ; then taking me into his hands, and
stroking me gently, delivered himself in these words, which I shall
never forget, nor the manner he spoke them in : My little friend
Grildrig, you have made a most admirable panegyric upon your
country ; you have clearly proved that ignorance, idleness, and vice,
may be sometimes the only ingredients for qualifying a legislator ;
that laws are best explained, interpreted, and applied, by those
whose interest and abilities lie in perverting, confounding, and
eluding them. I observe among you some lines of an institution,
which in its original might have been tolerable, but these half
erased, and the rest wholly blurred and blotted by corruptions. It
does not appear, from all you have said, how any one virtue is
required toward the procurement of any one station among you ;
much less that men were ennobled on account of their virtue ; that
priests were advanced for their piety or learning ; soldiers, for their
conduct or valour ; judges, for their integrity ; senators, for the
love of their country ; or counsellors for their wisdom. As for
yourself (continued the king), who have spent the greatest part of
your life in travelling, I am well disposed to hope you may hitherto
have escaped many vices of your country. But by what I have
gathered from your own relation, and the answers I have with much
pains wringed and extorted from you, I cannot but conclude the bulk
of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin
that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.
114
A HOLLOW TUBE OF BRASS OR IRON
CHAPTER VII
OTHING but an extreme love of truth could have
hindered me from concealing this part of my story.
It was in vain to discover my resentments, which
were always turned into ridicule ; and I was forced
to rest with patience while my noble and beloved
country was so injuriously treated. I am as heartily sorry as any
of my readers can possibly be, that such an occasion was given :
but this prince happened to be so curious and inquisitive upon
every particular, that it could not consist either with gratitude or
good manners, to refuse giving him what satisfaction I was able.
Yet thus much I may be allowed to say in my own vindication, that
I artfully eluded many of his questions, and gave to every point
a more favourable turn by many degrees than the strictness of truth
would allow. For I have always borne that laudable partiality to
my own- country, which Dionysius Halicarnassensis with so much
justice recommends to an historian : I would hide the frailties and
deformities of my political mother, and place her virtues and
beauties in the most advantageous light. This was my sincere
endeavour in those many discourses I had with that monarch,
although it unfortunately failed of success.
But great allowances should be given to a king, who lives
wholly secluded from the rest of the world, and must therefore
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
be altogether unacquainted with the manners and customs that
most prevail in other nations ; the want of which knowledge will
ever produce many prejudices, and a certain narrowness of thinking,
from which we and the politer countries of Europe are wholly
exempted. And it would be hard indeed, if so remote a prince's
notions of virtue and vice were to be offered as a standard for all
mankind.
To confirm what I have now said, and farther to show the
miserable effects of a confined education, I shall here insert a passage,
which will hardly obtain belief. In hopes to ingratiate myself
farther into his majesty's favour, I told him of an invention, dis-
covered between three and four hundred years ago, to make a certain
powder, into a heap of which the smallest spark of fire falling,
would kindle the whole in a moment, although it were as big as
a mountain, and make it all fly up in the air together, with a noise
and agitation greater than thunder. That a proper quantity of this
powder rammed into a hollow tube of brass or iron, according to
its bigness, would drive a ball of iron or lead, with such violence
and speed, as nothing was able to sustain its force. That the largest
balls thus discharged, would not only destroy whole ranks of an
army at once, but batter the strongest walls to the ground ; sink
down ships, with a thousand men in each, to the bottom of the sea ;
and when linked together by a chain, would cut through masts and
rigging, divide hundreds of bodies in the middle, and lay all waste
before them. That we often put this powder into large hollow
balls of iron, and discharged them by an engine into some city we
were besieging, which would rip up the pavements, tear the houses
to pieces, burst and throw splinters on every side, dashing out the
brains of all who came near. That I knew the ingredients very
well, which were cheap and common ; I understood the manner of
compounding them, and could direct his workmen how to make
those tubes, of a size proportionable to all other things in his
majesty's kingdom, and the largest need not be above a hundred feet
long ; twenty or thirty of which tubes, charged with the proper
quantity of powder and balls, would batter down the walls of the
strongest town in his dominions in a few hours, or destroy the
whole metropolis, if ever it should pretend to dispute his absolute
commands. This I humbly offered to his majesty as a small tribute
of acknowledgment, in return of so many marks that I had received
of his royal favour and protection.
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GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
The king was struck with horror at the description I had given
of those terrible engines, and the proposal I had made. He was
amazed, how so impotent and grovelling an insect as I (these were
his expressions) could entertain such inhuman ideas, and in so
familiar a manner as to appear wholly unmoved at all the scenes
of blood and desolation, which I had painted as the common
effects of those destructive
machines ; whereof, he said,
some evil genius, enemy to
mankind, must have been the
first contriver. As for him-
self, he protested, that al-
though few things delighted
him so much as new dis-
coveries in art or in nature,
yet he would rather lose half
his kingdom than be privy to
such a secret, which he com-
manded me, as I valued my
life, never to mention any
more.
A strange effect of narrow
principles and short views !
that a prince possessed of
every quality which procures
veneration, love, and esteem ;
of strong parts, great wisdom,
and profound learning ; en-
dued with admirable talents
for government, and almost
adored by his subjects, should from a nice unnecessary scruple,
whereof in Europe we can have no conception, let slip an oppor-
tunity put into his hands that would have made him absolute
master of the lives, the liberties, and the fortunes of his people.
Neither do I say this, with the least intention to detract from the
many virtues of that excellent king, whose character I am sensible,
will, on this account, be very much lessened in the opinion of an
English reader ; but I take this defect among them to have risen
from their ignorance, they not having hitherto reduced politics into
a science, as the more acute wits of Europe have done.
117
THE KING WAS STRUCK WITH HORROR AT
THE DESCRIPTION
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
For, I remember very well, in a discourse one day with the king,
when I happened to say there were several thousand books among us
written upon the art of government, it gave him (directly contrary
to my intention) a very mean opinion of our understandings. He
professed both to abominate and despise all mystery, refinement, and
intrigue, either in a prince or a minister. He could not tell what I
meant by secrets of state, where an enemy or some rival nation were
not in the case. He confined the knowledge of governing within
very narrow bounds, to common sense and reason, to justice and
lenity, to the speedy determination of civil and criminal causes ;
with some other obvious topics which are not worth considering.
And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of
corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground, where
only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more
essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians
put together.
The learning of this people is very defective ; consisting only in
morality, history, poetry, and mathematics, wherein they must be
allowed to excel. But the last of these is wholly applied to what
may be useful in life, to the improvement of agriculture and all
mechanical arts ; so that among us it would be little esteemed. And
as to ideas, entities, abstractions, and transcendentals, I could never
drive the least conception into their heads.
No law of that country must exceed in words the number of
letters in their alphabet, which consists only of two-and-twenty.
But indeed few of them extend even to that length. They are
expressed in the most plain and simple terms, wherein those people
are not mercurial enough to discover above one interpretation : and
to write a comment upon any law is a capital crime. As to the
decision of civil causes, or proceedings against criminals, their
precedents are so few, that they have little reason to boast of any
extraordinary skill in either.
They have had the art of printing, as well as the Chinese, time
out of mind : but their libraries are not very large ; for that of the
king, which is reckoned the largest, does not amount to above a
thousand volumes, placed in a gallery of twelve hundred feet long,
whence I had liberty to borrow what books I pleased. The queen's
joiner had contrived in one of Glumdalclitch's rooms, a kind of
wooden machine five-and-twenty feet high, formed like a standing
118
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
ladder ; the steps were each fifty feet long ; it was indeed a movable
pair of stairs, the lowest end placed at ten feet distance from the wall
of the chamber. The book I had a mind to read was put up leaning
against the wall : I first mounted to the upper step of the ladder,
and turning my face towards the book, began at the top of the page,
and so walking to the right and left about eight or ten paces,
according to the length of the lines, till I had gotten a little below
the level of mine eyes, and then descending gradually till I came to
the bottom : after which I mounted again, and began the other
page in the same manner, and so turned over the leaf, which I could
easily do with both my hands, for it was as thick and stiff as a
pasteboard, and in the largest folios not above eighteen or twenty
feet long.
Their style is clear, masculine, and smooth, but not florid ; for
they avoid nothing more than multiplying unnecessary words, or
using various expressions. I have perused many of their books,
especially those in history and morality. Among the rest, I was
much diverted with a little old treatise, which always lay in
Glumdalclitch's bedchamber, and belonged to her governess, a grave
elderly gentlewoman, who dealt in writings of morality and devotion.
The book treats of the weakness of human kind, and is in little
esteem except among the women and the vulgar. However, I was
curious to see what an author of that country could say upon such
a subject.
This writer went through all the usual topics of European
moralists, showing how diminutive, contemptible, and helpless an
animal was man in his own nature : how unable to defend himself
from inclemencies of the air, or the fury of wild beasts : how much
he was excelled by one creature in strength, by another in speed, by
a third in foresight, by a fourth in industry. He added, that nature
was degenerated in these latter declining ages of the world, and could
now produce only small abortive births, in comparison of those in
ancient times. He said, it was very reasonable to think, not only
that the species of men were originally much larger, but also that
there must have been giants in former ages : which, as it is asserted
by history and tradition, so it has been confirmed by huge bones and
skulls casually dug up in several parts of the kingdom, far exceeding
the common dwindled race of men in our days. He argued, that
the very laws of nature absolutely required we should have been
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GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
made, in the beginning, of a size more large and robust, not so liable
to destruction from every little accident, of a tile falling from a
house, or a stone cast from the hand of a boy, or being drowned in a
little brook. From this way of reasoning, the author drew several
moral applications, useful in the conduct of life, but needless here to
repeat. For my own part, I could not avoid reflecting how uni-
versally this talent was spread, of drawing lectures in morality, or
indeed rather matter of discontent and repining, from the quarrels we
raise with nature. And I believe, upon a strict inquiry, those
quarrels might be shown as ill-grounded among us as they are among
that people.
As to their military affairs, they boast that the king's army
consists of a hundred and seventy-six thousand foot, and thirty-two
thousand horse : if that may be called an army, which is made up of
tradesmen in the several cities, and farmers in the country, whose
commanders are only the nobility and gentry, without pay or reward.
They are indeed perfect enough in their exercises, and under very
good discipline, wherein I saw no great merit ; for how should it be
otherwise, where every farmer is under the command of his own
landlord, and every citizen under that of the principal men in his own
city, chosen, after the manner of Venice, by ballot ? I have often
seen the militia of Lorbrulgrud drawn out to exercise in a great field
near the city, of twenty miles square. They were in all not above
twenty-five thousand foot, and six thousand horse ; but it was
impossible for me to compute their number, considering the space of
ground they took up. A cavalier mounted on a large steed might
be about an hundred feet high. I have seen this whole body of
horse, upon a word of command, draw their swords at once, and
brandish them in the'air. Imagination can figure nothing so grand,
so surprising, and so astonishing ! it looked as if ten thousand flashes
of lightning were darting at the same time from every quarter
of the sky.
I was curious to know how this prince, to whose dominions there
is no access from any other country, came to think of armies, or to
teach his people the practice of military discipline. But I was soon
informed, both by conversation and reading their histories ; for, in
the course of many ages, they have been troubled with the same
disease to which so many other governments are subject ; the nobility
often contending for power, the people for liberty, and the king for
absolute dominion. All which, however happily tempered by the
120
A CAVALIER MOUNTED ON A LARGE STEED
121
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
laws of that kingdom, have been sometimes violated by each of the
three parties, and have once or more occasioned civil wars ; the last
whereof was happily put an end to by this prince's grandfather by a
general composition, and the militia, then settled with common
consent, has been ever since kept in the strictest duty.
122
BROUGHT IN A TUMBRIL TO LORBRULGRUD
CHAPTER VIII
HAD always a strong impulse that I should some time
recover my liberty, though it was impossible to con-
jecture by what means, or to form any project with
the least hope of succeeding. The ship in which I
sailed was the first known to be driven within sight
of that coast, and the king had given strict orders, that if at any
time another appeared, it should be taken ashore and with all its
crew and passengers brought in a tumbril to Lorbrulgrud.
I was indeed treated with much kindness : 1 was the favourite
of a great king and queen, and the delight of the whole court ;
but it was upon such a foot as ill became the dignity of human
kind. I could never forget those domestic pledges I had left
behind me. I wanted to be among people with whom I could
converse upon even terms, and walk about the streets and fields
without fear of being trod to death like a frog or a young puppy.
But my deliverance came sooner than I expected, and in a manner
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GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
not very common : the whole story and circumstances of which
I shall faithfully relate.
I had now been two years in this country : and about the
beginning of the third, Glumdalclitch and I attended the king
and queen, in a progress to the south coast of the kingdom. I
was carried as usual, in my travelling box, which, as I have
already described, was a very convenient closet of twelve feet
wide. And I had ordered a hammock to be fixed, by silken
ropes, from the four corners at the top, to break the jolts when
a servant carried me before him on horseback, as I sometimes
desired ; and would often sleep in my hammock, while we were
upon the road. On the roof of my closet, not directly over the
middle of the hammock, I ordered the joiner to cut a hole of a
foot square, to give me air in hot weather as I slept : which
hole I shut at pleasure, with a board that drew backwards and
forwards through a groove.
When we came to our journey's end, the king thought proper
to pass a few days at a palace he has near Flanflasnic, a city within
eighteen English miles of the sea-side. Glumdalclitch and I
were much fatigued : I had gotten a small cold, but the poor
girl was so ill as to be confined to her chamber. I longed to
see the ocean, which must be the only scene of my escape, if
ever it should happen. I pretended to be worse than I really
was, and desired leave to take the fresh air of the sea, with a
page whom I was very fond of, and who had sometimes been
trusted with me. I shall never forget with what unwillingness
Glumdalclitch consented, nor the strict charge she gave the page
to be careful of me, bursting at the same time into a flood of
tears, as if she had some foreboding of what was to happen.
The boy took me out in my box, about half an hour's walk
from the palace, towards the rocks on the sea-shore. I ordered
him to set me down, and lifting up one of my sashes, cast many
a wistful melancholy look towards the sea. I found myself not
very well, and told the page that I had a mind to take a nap
in my hammock, which I hoped would do me good. I got in,
and the boy shut the window close down to keep out the cold.
I soon fell asleep, and all I can conjecture is, that while I slept,
the page thinking no danger could happen, went among the
rocks to look for birds' eggs, having before observed him from
my window searching about, and picking up one or two in the
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GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
clefts. Be that as it will, I found myself suddenly awakened with
a violent pull upon the ring which was fastened at the top of
my box for the convenciency of carriage. I felt my box raised
very high in the air, and then borne forward with prodigious
speed.
The first jolt had like to have shaken me out of my hammock,
but afterward the motion was easy enough. I called out several
times as loud as I could raise my voice, but all to no purpose. I
looked towards my windows, and could see nothing but the
clouds and sky. I heard a
noise just over my head, like
the clapping of wings, and
then began to perceive the
woeful condition I was in ; that
some eagle had got the cord of
my box in his beak, with an
intent to let it fall on a rock,
like a tortoise in a shell, and
then pick out my body, and
devour it : for the sagacity
and smell of this bird enable
him to discover his quarry at
a great distance, though better
concealed than I could be
within a two-inch board. In
a little time, I observed the
noise and flutter of wings to
increase very fast, and my box was tossed up and down, like a
sign-post in a windy day. I heard several bangs or buffets, as
I thought, given to the eagle (for such I am certain it must have
been that held the ring of my box in his beak), and then, all on
a sudden, felt myself falling perpendicularly down for above a
minute,, but with such incredible swiftness that I almost lost
my breath. My fall was stopped by a terrible squash, that
sounded louder to my ears than the cataract of Niagara ; after
which I was quite in the dark for another minute, and then my
box began to rise so high, that I could see light from the tops
of the windows.
I now perceived that I was fallen into the sea. My box, by
the weight of my body, the goods that were in, and the broad
125
THE EAGLE WHICH FLEW AWAY WITH MY BOX
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
plates of iron fixed for strength at the four corners of the top
and bottom, floated about five feet deep in water. I did then,
and do now suppose, that the eagle which flew away with my
box was pursued by two or three others, and forced to let me
drop, while he was defending himself against the rest, who hoped
to share in the prey. The plates of iron fastened at the bottom
of the box (for those were the strongest) preserved the balance
while it fell, and hindered it from being broken on the surface
of the water. Every joint of it was well grooved ; and the door
did not move on hinges, but up and down like a sash, which
kept my closet so tight that very little water came in. I got
with much difficulty out of my hammock, having first ventured
to draw back the slip-board on the roof already mentioned, contrived
on purpose to let in air, for want of which 1 found myself almost
stifled.
How often did I then wish myself with my dear Glumdalclitch,
from whom one single hour had so far divided me ! And I may say
with truth, that in the midst of my own misfortunes I could not
forbear lamenting my poor nurse, the grief she would suffer for my
loss, the displeasure of the queen, and the ruin of her fortune.
Perhaps many travellers have not been under greater difficulties and
distress than I was at this juncture, expecting every moment to see
my box dashed in pieces, or at least overset by the first violent blast,
or a rising wave. A breach in one single pane of glass would have
been immediate death ; nor could anything have preserved the
windows, but the strong lattice wires placed on the outside, against
accidents in travelling. I saw the water ooze in at several crannies,
although the leaks were not considerable, and I endeavoured to stop
them as well as I could. I was not able to lift up the roof of my
closet, which otherwise I certainly should have done, and sat on the
top of it ; where I might at least preserve myself some hours longer,
than by being shut up (as I may call it) in the hold. Or if I
escaped these dangers for a day or two, what could I expect, but a
miserable death of cold and hunger ? I was for four hours under these
circumstances, expecting, and indeed wishing, every moment to be
my last.
I have already told the reader that there were two strong staples
fixed upon that side of my box which had no window ; and into
which the servant, who used to carry me on horseback, would put
a leathern belt, and buckle it about his waist. Being in this
126
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
disconsolate state, I heard, or at least thought I heard, some kind of
grating noise on that side of my box where the staples were fixed ;
and soon after I began to fancy that the box was pulled or towed
along the sea ; for I now and then felt a sort of tugging, which
I BEGAN TO FANCY THAT THE BOX WAS PULLED OR TOWED ALONG THE SEA
made the waves rise near the tops of my windows, leaving me almost
in the dark. This gave me some faint hopes of relief, although
I was not able to imagine how it could be brought about. I
ventured to unscrew one of my chairs, which were always fastened to
127
THE CARPENTER CAME
128
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
the floor ; and having made a hard shift to screw it down again,
directly under the slipping-board that I had lately opened, I mounted
on the chair, and putting my mouth as near as I could to the hole, I
called for help in a loud voice, and in all the languages I understood.
I then fastened my handkerchief to a stick I usually carried, and,
thrusting it up the hole, waved it several times in the air, that if any
boat or ship were near, the seamen might conjecture some unhappy
mortal to be shut up in this box.
I found no effect from all I could do, but plainly perceived my
closet to be moved along ; and in the space of an hour, or better,
that side of the box where the staples were, and had no windows,
struck against something that was hard. I apprehended it to be a
rock, and found myself tossed more than ever. I plainly heard
a noise upon the cover of my closet, like that of a cable, and the
grating of it as it passed through the ring. I then found myself
hoisted up, by degrees, at least three feet higher than I was before.
Whereupon I again thrust up my stick and handkerchief, calling for
help till I was almost hoarse. In return to which, I heard a great
shout repeated three times, giving me such transports of joy, as are
not to be conceived but by those who feel them.
I now heard a trampling over my head, and somebody calling
through the hole with a loud voice, in the English tongue, if there
be anybody below, let them speak. I answered, I was an English-
man, drawn by ill fortune into the greatest calamity that ever any
creature underwent, and begged, by all that was moving, to be
delivered out of the dungeon I was in. The voice replied, I
was safe, for my box was fastened to their ship ; and the carpenter
should immediately come and saw a hole in the cover, large enough
to pull me out. I answered that was needless, and would take up
too much time ; for there was no more to be done, but let one of
the crew put his finger into the ring, and take the box out of the sea
into the ship, and so into the captain's cabin. Some of them, upon
hearing, me talk so wildly, thought I was mad ; others laughed ; for
indeed it never came into my head, that I was now got among people
of my own stature and strength. The carpenter came, and in a few
minutes sawed a passage about four feet square, then let down a
small ladder, upon which I mounted, and thence was taken into the
ship in a very weak condition.
The sailors were all in amazement, and asked me a thousand
questions, which I had no inclination to answer. I was equally
129
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
confounded at the sight of so many pigmies, for such I took them to
be, after having so long accustomed mine eyes to the monstrous
objects I had left. But the captain, Mr. Thomas Wilcocks, an
honest worthy Shropshire man, observing I was ready to faint, took
me into his cabin, gave me a cordial to comfort me, and made me
turn in upon his own bed, advising me to take a little rest, of which
I had great need. Before I went to sleep, I gave him to understand
that I had some valuable furniture in my box, too good to be lost ; a
fine hammock, a handsome field-bed, two chairs, a table, and a
cabinet ; that my closet was hung on all sides, or rather quilted, with
silk and cotton ; that if he would let one of the crew bring my closet
into his cabin, I would open it there before him, and show him my
goods. The captain, hearing me utter these absurdities, concluded I
was raving : however (I suppose to pacify me) he promised to give
order as I desired, and going upon deck, sent some of his men down
into my closet, whence (as I afterwards found), they drew up all my
goods, and stripped off the quilting ; but the chairs, cabinet, and
bedstead, being screwed to the floor, were much damaged by the
ignorance of the seamen, who tore them up by force. Then they
knocked off some of the boards for the use of the ship, and when
they had got all they had a mind for, let the hull drop into the sea,
which, by reason of many breaches made in the bottom and sides,
sunk to rights. And, indeed, I was glad not to have been a spectator
of the havoc they made ; because I am confident it would have
sensibly touched me, by bringing former passages into my mind,
which I had rather forget.
I slept some hours, but perpetually disturbed with dreams of the
place I had left, and the dangers I had escaped. However, upon
waking, I found myself much recovered. It was now about eight
o'clock at night, and the captain ordered supper immediately, think-
ing I had already fasted too long. He entertained me with great
kindness, observing me not to look wildly, or talk inconsistently ;
and when we were left alone, desired I would give him a relation of
my travels, and by what accident I came to be set adrift in that
monstrous wooden chest. He said, that about twelve o'clock at
noon, as he was looking through his glass, he spied it at a distance,
and thought it was a sail, which he had a mind to make, being not
much out of his course, in hopes of buying some biscuit, his own
beginning to fall short. That upon coming nearer, and finding his
error, he sent out his long boat, to discover what I was ; that
'3
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
his men came back in a fright, swearing they had seen a swimming
house. That he laughed at their folly, and went himself in the boat,
ordering his men to take a strong cable along with them. That the
weather being calm, he rowed round me several times, observed my
windows and wire lattices that defended them. That he discovered
two staples upon one side, which was all of boards, without any
passage for light. He then commanded his men to row up to that
side, and fastening a cable to one of the staples, ordered them to tow
my chest (as they called it) towards the ship. When it was there,
he gave directions to fasten another cable to the ring fixed in the
cover, and to raise up my chest with pulleys, which all the sailors
were not able to do above two or three feet. He said, they saw my
stick and handkerchief thrust out of the hole, and concluded that
some unhappy men must be shut up in the cavity.
I asked, whether he or the crew had seen any prodigious birds in
the air, about the time he first discovered me ? To which he
answered, that discoursing this matter with the sailors while I was
asleep, one of them said, he had observed three eagles flying towards
the north, but remarked nothing of their being larger than the usual
size ; which I suppose must be imputed to the great height they
were at ; and he could not guess the reason of my question. I then
asked the captain, how far he reckoned we might be from land ?
He said, by the best computation he could make, we were at least a
hundred leagues. I assured him that he must be mistaken by almost
half, for I had not left the country whence I came, above two hours
before I dropped into the sea. Whereupon he began again to think
that my brain was disturbed, of which he gave me a hint, and
advised me to go to bed in a cabin he had provided. I assured him,
I was well refreshed with his good entertainment and company, and
as much in my senses as ever I was in my life. He then grew
serious, and desired to ask me freely, whether I were not troubled in
my mind by the consciousness of some enormous crime, for which I
was punished, at the command of some prince, by exposing me in
that chest ; as great criminals, in other countries, have been forced
to sea in a leaky vessel, without provisions : for although he
should be sorry to have taken so ill a man into his ship, yet
he would engage his word to set me safe on shore, in the first
port where we arrived ? He added, that his suspicions were much
increased by some very absurd speeches I had delivered at first
to his sailors, and afterwards to himself, in relation to my closet
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
or chest, as well as by my odd looks and behaviour while I was at
supper.
I begged his patience to hear me tell my story, which I
faithfully did, from the last time I left England, to the moment
he first discovered me. And as truth always forces its way into
rational minds, so this honest worthy gentleman, who had some
tincture of learning, and very good sense, was immediately
convinced of my candour and veracity. But, farther to confirm
all I had said, I entreated him to give order that my cabinet should
be brought, of which I had the key in my pocket ; for he had
already informed me how the seamen disposed of my closet.
I opened it in his own presence, and showed him the small
collection of rarities I made in the country from which I had been so
strangely delivered. There was the comb I had contrived out of the
stumps of the king's beard, and another of the same materials, but
fixed into a paring of his majesty's thumb nail, which served for the
back. There was a collection of needles and pins, from a foot to half
a yard long ; four wasp stings, like joiner's tacks ; some combings
of the queen's hair ; a gold ring which one day she made me
a present of, in a most obliging manner, taking it from her
little finger, and throwing it over my head like a collar. I desired
the captain would please to accept this ring in return of his
civilities ; which he absolutely refused. I showed him a corn that
I had cut off, with my own hand, from a maid of honour's toe ;
it was about the bigness of a Kentish pippin, and grown so hard,
that when I returned to England, I got it hollowed into a cup, and
set it in silver. Lastly, I desired him to see the breeches I had then
on, which were made of a mouse's skin.
I could force nothing on him but a footman's tooth, which
I observed him to examine with great curiosity, and found he
had a fancy for it. He received it with abundance of thanks, more
than such a trifle could deserve. It was drawn by an unskilful
surgeon, in a mistake, from one of Glumdalclitch's men, who
was afflicted with the tooth-ache, but it was as sound as any in his
head. I got it cleaned, and put it into my cabinet. It was about
a foot long, and four inches in diameter.
The captain was very well satisfied with this plain relation I had
given him, and said, he hoped, when we returned to England, I
would oblige the world by putting it on paper, and making it
public. My answer was, that I thought we were overstocked
132
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
with books of travels ; that nothing could now pass which was not
extraordinary ; wherein, I doubted some authors less consulted
truth, than their own vanity, or interest, or the diversion of
ignorant readers ; that my story could contain little beside common
events, without those ornamental descriptions of strange plants,
trees, birds, and other animals, or of the barbarous customs and
idolatry of savage people, with which most writers abound.
However,, I thanked him for his good opinion, and promised to
take the matter into my thoughts.
He said, he wondered at one thing very much, which was
to hear me speak so loud ; asking me, whether the king and queen
of that country were thick of hearing ? I told him, it was what I
had been used to for above two years past ; and that I admired
as much at the voices of him and his men, who seemed to me only
to whisper, and yet I could hear them well enough. But, when
I spoke in that country, it was like a man talking in the streets, to
another looking out from the top of a steeple, unless when I was
placed on a table, or held in any person's hand. I told him,
I had likewise observed another thing, that when I first got into
the ship, and the sailors stood all about me, I thought they were the
most little contemptible creatures I had ever beheld. For, indeed,
while I was in that prince's country, I could never endure to
look in a glass after my eyes had been accustomed to such
prodigious objects, because the comparisons gave me so despicable
a conceit of myself.
The captain said, that while we were at supper he observed me
to look at everything with a sort of wonder, and that I often
seemed hardly able to contain my laughter, which he knew not
well how to take, but imputed it to some disorder in my brain.
I answered, it was very true ; and I wondered how I could forbear,
when I saw his dishes of the size of a silver threepence, a leg
of pork hardly a mouthful, a cup not so big as a nutshell ; and so I
went orr, describing the rest of his household-stuff and provisions,
after the same manner. For, although the queen had ordered
a little equipage of all things necessary while I was in her service,
yet my ideas were wholly taken up with what I saw on every
side of me, and I winked at my own littleness as people do at their
own faults. The captain understood my raillery very well, and
merrily replied with the old English proverb, that he doubted
mine eyes were bigger than my belly, for he did not observe
133
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
my stomach so good, although I had fasted all day ; and,,
continuing in his mirth, protested, he would have gladly given
a hundred pounds, to have seen my closet in the eagle's bill, and
afterwards in its fall from so great a height into the sea : which
would certainly have been a most astonishing object, worthy to
have the description of it transmitted to future ages : and the
comparison of Phaeton was so obvious, that he could not forbear
applying it, although I did not much admire the conceit.
THE CAPTAIN WAS VERY WELL SATISFIED WITH THIS PLAIN RELATION
The captain having been at Tonquin, was in his return to
England, driven north-eastward to the latitude of 44 degrees,
and of longitude 143. But meeting a trade-wind two days
after I came on board him, we sailed southward for a long time,
and coasting New Holland, kept our course west-south-west, and
then south-south-west, till we doubled the Cape of Good Hope.
Our voyage was very prosperous, but I shall not trouble the reader
with a journal of it. The captain called in at one or two ports, and
sent in his long-boat for provisions and fresh water ; but I never
went out of the ship till we came into the Downs, which was
134
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
on the third day of June 1706, about nine months after my escape.
I offered to leave my goods in security for payment of my freight,
but the captain protested he would not receive one farthing. We
took a kind leave of each other, and I made him promise he would
come to see me at my house in Redriff. I hired a horse and guide
for five shillings, which I borrowed of the captain.
As I was on the road, observing the littleness of the houses,
the trees, the cattle, and the people, I began to think myself in
Lilliput. I was afraid of trampling on every traveller I met,
and often called aloud to them to have them stand out of the
way, so that I had like to have gotten one or two broken heads for
my impertinence.
When I came to my own house, for which I was forced to
inquire, one of my servants opening the door, I bent down to go in
(like a goose under a gate), for fear of striking my head. My wife
ran out to embrace me, but I stooped lower than her knees,
thinking she could otherwise never be able to reach my mouth.
My daughter kneeled to ask my blessing, but I could not see
her till she arose, having been so long used to stand with my
head and eyes erect to above sixty feet ; and then I went to take
her up with one hand by the waist. I looked down upon the
servants, and one or two friends who were in the house, as if
they had been pigmies, and I a giant. I told my wife, she had
been too thrifty, for I found she had starved herself and her
daughter to nothing. In short, I behaved myself so unaccountably
that they were all of the captain's opinion when he first saw me,
and concluded I had lost my wits. This I mention as an instance
of the great power of habit and prejudice.
In a little time, I and my family and friends came to a right
understanding : but my wife protested I should never go to sea any
more.
'35
CEN1
PRINTED IN Guitar BRITAIN ny
RICHARD CLAY .1- SONS, LIMITED,
AND BUNGAY. SUFFOLK.
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